Dissertation Reserach: Building Agro-Biotechnology Capabilities in Small Countries

这项关于科学和技术论文改进资助的研究旨在分析周边制度环境在小国农业生物技术的企业和部门一级的技术能力建设方面的作用。文章认为，与农业生物技术相关的制度环境的特征，包括政策、制度（游戏规则）和相关组织网络（游戏参与者），在很大程度上决定了企业所建立的技术能力的类型。这项研究的重点是具有重要农业部门的小国和农业生物技术，试图提供一个有趣的组合，包括一个知识高度密集但与初级农业生产密切相关的部门。该分析以“创新和生产的部门系统”的概念为框架（Malerba 2002）。为了检验制度对技术能力建设的影响，这项研究将借鉴哥斯达黎加、新西兰和乌拉圭这三个小国的案例研究。首先，它将绘制这三个国家农业生物技术系统的主要特征，包括其核心和边界、其构成行动者及其关系，以及该部门在20世纪80年代和90年代的表现和演变。第一阶段将利用二手数据。第二阶段将试图建立体制环境与技术能力建设之间的因果机制。它将主要依靠对部门系统行动者的深入访谈，以及关于机构及其随时间演变的二手数据。为此，研究人员计划在每个国家停留一个月。这项研究的更广泛影响如下：(i)它将有助于在与创新有关的因素方面为公共政策提出方向，例如资金、培训、教育，以及关于系统中不同行动者的衔接；它也将是根据对该系统的长处和短处的分析来分配资源和确定优先次序的重要指南；它将成为一种学习工具，因为它将说明其他小国的经验；最后，更好地理解建设技术能力的过程将影响这些小国的经济增长前景。

This Research on Science and Technology Dissertation Improvement Grant is aimed at analyzing the role of the surrounding institutional environment on the building of technological capabilities at the firm and sectoral level in agricultural biotechnology in small countries. It argues that the characteristics of the institutional environment related to agricultural biotechnology, including policies, institutions (rules of the game) and the web of related organizations (players of the game), strongly determine the type of technological capabilities built by firms. This study's focus on small countries with an important agricultural sector and on agricultural biotechnology attempts to provide an interesting combination by including a highly knowledge-intensive sector, but closely connected to the primary production of agriculture.The analysis is framed by the concept of the 'sectoral system of innovation and production' (Malerba 2002). To examine the impact of institutions on the building of technological capabilities, the study will draw on case studies of three small countries, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and Uruguay. First, it will map the main characteristics of the agricultural biotechnology system in the three countries, including its core and boundaries, its constitutive actors and their relationships, and the performance and evolution of the sector in the 1980s and 1990s. This first stage will be drawn on secondary data. The second phase will attempt to establish the causal mechanisms between the institutional environment and the building of technological capabilities. It will rely mainly on in-depth interviews with the actors of the sectoral system, as well as on secondary data about the institutions and their evolution over time. For these purposes, the researcher plans to stay one month in each country. The broader impacts of this research are the followings: (i) it will contribute with suggesting directions for public policy in innovation-related factors, such as funding, training, education, as well as regarding the articulation of the different actors of the system; (ii) it will also be an important guide for the allocation of resources and priority-setting, based on the analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the system; (iii) it will represent a learning tool as it will illustrate the experiences of other small countries; and (iv) finally a better understanding of the process of building technological capabilities will impact the prospects for economic growth of these small countries.