National innovation system

The National Innovation System (also NIS, National System of Innovation) is the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions which is key to the innovative process on the national level. According to innovation system theory, innovation and technology development are results of a complex set of relationships among actors in the system, which includes enterprises, universities and government research institutes.
Origins of term.
The term National System of Innovation originated when Christopher Freeman and Bengt-Åke Lundvall worked together in the late 1980s. Freeman's research drew heavily on political economy of Friedrich List and his historical account of the rise of Japan as an economic superpower. Lundvall's work explored the important social interactions between suppliers and customers and their role in encouraging innovation in Denmark. Apart from a general definition, as above, there is no canonical definition of national innovation systems. A few dominant definitions are listed below (quoted in an OECD publication) which overlap quite a bit:
A national system of innovation has been defined as follows:
A country’s innovative performance largely depends on how these actors relate to
each other as elements of a collective system of knowledge creation and use as well as
the technologies they use. For example, public research institutes, academia and
industry serve as research producers carrying out R&D activities. On the other hand,
governments either central or regional play the role of coordinator among research
producers in terms of their policy instruments, visions and perspectives for the future.
Furthermore, in order to promote innovation the different innovative actors must
have strong linkages with each other based on a strong level of trust and governments
should promote and activate trust among the different innovation actors. The linkages can take the form of joint research, personnel exchanges, crosspatenting,
and purchase of equipment.
Finally, NSI are shaped by distinct socio-cultural qualities of national communities.
Therefore, there are national trajectories of innovativeness, technology orientation and
learning, which results in each nation, either highly developed or not, having some
kind of NSI, no matter if working well or not. Further more, the
Success factors of NSI have been seen by many scholars in the creation of supportive
institutions and organizations (with a key role of education) and collaboration
linkages Bridging Scales in Innovation Policies throughout the various elements that
constitute a NSI. Examples include public R&D and companies, as well as common
objectives and innovative cultures of agents, altogether entailing self reinforcing
progress and synergies. Differences in the structures and strategies of NSI among
various economically successful countries indicate however, that there is no universal
best practise recipe.