What can we learn from the failures of technology and innovation policies in the European periphery?

Abstract

This paper examines the technology policy challenges facing peripheral European Union economies in their effort to catch up with the more advanced countries. It is argued that, generally, the subordinate position of peripheral economies within the EU compels them to replicate the technology policies followed in advanced countries. Yet the latter have proven more or less inappropriate for peripheral countries and regions because they usually do not properly accommodate their growth models and their corresponding production structures. On the other hand, the EU’s preoccupation with ‘high-tech’ and ‘best-practice’ policies can be attributed to the underestimation of business organization and broader economic structures by the dominant theoretical paradigm of technology and innovation.