Abstract for: A Preliminary Model of Innovation Systems

The Innovation System (IS) approach is a conceptual framework used by scholars and policy makers to describe the scientific and technological structures and processes that influence economic development. The current literature offers a wide variety of models representing IS making difficult to choose the most appropriate one to inform and formulate policy. This article aims at summarizing and aggregating the wide range of models into one single meta-model that could allow a more comprehensive understanding of the structure - components and linkages - of an IS and offer rigorous and timely assessments of the evidence base to inform decision and policy makers. Thus, a preliminary structured model of a Regional Innovation System is developed and formalized through the use of a system dynamics simulation model that depicts changes in the linkages and its knowledge flows over time. The model might be used in future research in analyzing specific Innovation Systems.