Informing
Policy
for Progress

Science , Technology and Innovation Indicators in Israel: An International Comparison (second edition)

Lacking natural resources, size and proximity to markets, the state of Israel must rely on scientific and technological know-how for its survival and prosperity. Israel’s economic achievements, especially in high-tech sectors, were enabled through a 40-years long various directed government policy measures aimed at fostering scientific and technological progress, and nurturing highly skilled workforce and […]

Innovation Policy for Development: an Overview STE-WP-34

This paper provides a framework for thinking about innovation policies for development. In such context innovation should be construed as a very broad notion that includes product and in process innovations of various sorts, generated by rank and file workers as much as by R&D labs. The economic rationale for government support of R&D needs […]

Evolutionary Innovation and High Tech Policy: What can we Learn from Israel’s Targeting of Venture Capital STE-WP-25

The paper analyzes Israel’s Innovation and High Tech Policy from a Systems-Evolutionary (S/E) and Life Cycle Perspectives with a focusing on the targeting of the Venture Capital Industry during the 1990s. Other related research strongly suggested that the emergence of Venture Capital (VC) during that decade was a central vector in the re-configuration of Israel’s […]

Evolutionary Venture Capital Policies: Insights from a Product life Cycle Analysis of Israel’s Venture Capital Industry, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-20-2003

The significance of VC as a component of the Silicon Valley model of high tech has led many countries during the 80s and 90s to implement government policies aimed at stimulating this activity. This paper suggests that a major factor in the failure of many of these policies to create an early phase, high tech […]

Is Venture Capital Special? Empirical Evidence from a Government Initiated Venture Capital Market, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-9

The financing extended by venture capital funds is examined in this paper, using a unique database that includes information about all the firms in the portfolio of all the Israeli venture capital funds in 1997-2000, and data on a control group of firms that were not backed by venture capital funds but were supported by […]

How Users Build The Innovation Partnership They Need

Innovation is unlikely to be successful if it is founded on the supposition that the innovative process is essentially simple, linear and sequential. It is not. The innovative process is complex, intricate and irregular and basically it can be considered as a learning and information process. Successful innovation is the product of a total information […]

The Military as a Public Space – The Role of the IDF in the Israeli Software Innovation System, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-13

This paper focuses on the role played by the Israeli military (IDF) in creating and sustaining the highly innovative Israeli software industry. The IDF is often credited with a large role in the creation and sustained success of the Israeli high-tech industry. The paper analyze the activities and history of the IDF’s central computer unit, […]

R&D, Firm Size and Innovation: An Empirical Analysis, SNI R&D Policy Papers Series

Investment in R&D spawns innovations, which in turn foster economic growth. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly aware of the role of industrial innovation in the rate of regional development and economic growth. In order to innovate, firms must invest in R&D (in-house or out-sourcing), and engage highly skilled labor that is able to […]

Public Policy, Locational Choice and the Innovation Capability of High-Tech Firms: A Comparison Between Israel and Ireland – SNI R&D Policy Papers Series

Using survey data from Irish and Israeli firms we examine the influence of public policy on the characteristics, location and innovation capability of high-tech firms. In Israel the innovation activities of Israeli firms are found to be much more locationally sensitive than that of Irish companies. Regional policy incentives, involving the dispersal of high-tech firms […]