Introduction

The following contains a comparative analysis of some important structural background features of national systems of innovation (NSI's). The sample is limited to 21 OECD countries. The empirical source is OECD's Trade by Commodities (foreign trade by ‘visible’ goods). This kind of data can only serve as an incomplete illustration of the conceptual framework derived in earlier chapters. However, the material offers some advantages worthwhile to exploit, e.g. time series covering more than a quarter of a century. Certain features of international export specialisation will be used as indirect proxies of more general economic development patterns of the OECD countries.

In chapter 4 the so called ‘structural thesis’ emphasises (domestic) production and linkage patterns as important determinants of substantial shares of not only non-professionalised learning and innovation, but also professionalised R&D. The arguments stress the incremental character of innovation and its path dependency. The changes of products and processes – it was argued – follow trajectories, to a large extent determined by inherited production and trade patterns. History matters; present and future innovation possibilities are highly dependent on existing structural features of the economy. Structure, as a reflection of history, matters.

It is no simple task to illustrate this line of reasoning, let alone to deliver outright empirical proofs on an international comparative basis. However, some of the ‘propositions’ of 4 may be confronted with empirical evidence. In the empirical part of this chapter it will be shown that the international specialisation patterns of the OECD countries fruitfully may be analysed in terms of life cycles.