The Emerging Importance of Knowledge for Development: Implications for Technology Policy and Innovation

What new roles for science and technology policy emerge in the knowledge-based economy we live in? This broad question was largely the motivation for the 1st International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), held in Macau in July 1997. Some of the important contributions to this conference are gathered in this special issue. The aim of this introductory article is to describe the background of current research in the area of science and technology policy, to summarize the contributions to this special issue, and to issue calls for new policy research. While the contributions to this special issue are diverse in terms of methodological approaches, units of analysis, and disciplinary fields, we try to integrate some important conclusions of the background analysis, suggesting further avenues for policy research, namely: (1) balancing innovation and diffusion; (2) beyond the excludability of software; (3) deepen the conceptual framework established through the interactive models of innovation; (4) promoting wetware and software interaction; and (5) the need for an inclusive development.