This concluding article takes up some central theoretical aspects about the concept of system of innovation that were launched at the onset of this special issue. Acknowledging that the system of innovation approach is still not a theory in its own right, further efforts for theory development...

This special issue celebrates the work of Bengt-Åke Lundvall on his 70th birthday. In the 1980s and 1990s he was a key player among a small group of academics in the USA and Europe that developed a new, systemic approach to the study of the interactions between science, innovation, and policy....