Towards a unified conceptualisation of innovation systems

In this paper an attempt will be made to identify what has been explicitly recognisedas central and peripheral within the systems of innovation concept; the inclusion orexclusion of the factors that are important in understanding the political economy ofinnovation systems; the themes, issues and range of actors and spaces that must beincluded in NSI types of appreciative theory or modelling. We suspect that those whofocus narrowly tend to exclude important variables that must be included in theunderstanding of the making and development of innovation systems. Converselythose who focus broadly may include factors that may not be helpful in creatingclarity of conception and understanding of the innovation systems application to theproblems and challenges of development.It is thus important to reflect and review the variety of ways the system of innovationhas been used by the economists who have used the NSI perspective in their search todevelop alternative frameworks to understand the problems and challenges ofeconomic system dynamics in general and economic development in particular. Wewill probe how the search for an alternative economic framework for economicdevelopment through the NSI perspective have been applied with a view to advancean argument for its judicious application as an intellectual conceptual tool to helpunderstanding and explanation of the problems and challenges of development andunderdevelopment.A unified conception of systems of innovation that includes not only history andculture but also the critical political factor that closely impinges and shapes policieson the economics of innovation will be attempted with a view to valorise theexplanatory analytical power of the NSI framework in the context of its value ingenerating new insights, practices and applications to the general problem ofeconomic development.