The applicability of the concept of National Innovation Systems to transition economies

This article aims at gaining a deeper insight into the structure of National Innovation Systems (NIS) in transition economies, which may allow for developing policy recommendations that help to stimulate more systemic and effective NIS in these countries. A great part of the existing studies focusing on NIS in less developed and transition countries argue that the specific nature of the NIS and related problems in less successful countries in terms of technological development and economic performance are different from developed countries. Therefore, we have to identify approaches on analyzing innovation systems that do work in transition economies. The following questions will be answered: Why is the NIS important for the economic development of a country? What are the approaches of NIS that are applicable to the specific situation of transition countries? Refering to the fact that a process-based : approach is appropriate to describe and analyze the innovation systems of countries in transition: What are the most important types of knowledge and learning processes for these countries?.