Innovation systems and policy: not only for the rich?
This article argues that the conditions for innovation by and for the poor have changed considerably in the last four decades in ways that can be related to the paradigm shift in technology and to the resulting changes in behaviour of the major corporations. It suggests that innovation studies and evolutionary economics should consciously and constantly pursue an understanding of such changes by fully incorporating history in the interdisciplinary mix. In essence it holds that evolutionary thinking needs to strike an appropriate balance between universal and changing truths, especially when studying innovation with a view to making policy recommendations.