Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
opportunities for exit strategies (Madhavan and Akie, 2009).
Growth and development in different regions thus offer incentives
for investment. At the same time though, established networks of
trust, information and contacts created between source and host
countries through migrant communities leads to more opportunities
for investment further afield than venture capital is usually distributed
(Madhavan and Akie, 2009). That is, the relationships between
home and host countries facilitate a greater flow of finance.
Moreover, the technical transformations of new communication
technologies and financial instruments, combined with deregulation
and the pressures of international competition, are argued to have
created an environment in which governments need to encourage
these global flows of labour and capital in order to maintain
competitive advantage (Greenspan, 1997; Cerny, 1994).
3.4
Globalization and innovation systems?
The NIS concept may seem as though it is increasingly redundant in
an increasingly global world. Research conducted in Australia with
stakeholders in the stem cell industries, for example, shows that they
generally seem to regard science as a global process and that
governments therefore have little influence over the innovation
process (Harvey, 2011). Within innovation theory, however, an
increased role for governments in facilitating the growth of the
biotech industries has been identified (Benner and Lofgren, 2007).
Yet just how much governments can influence the conditions of
innovation is open to debate. Generally speaking, increased funding
for basic research, strengthening collaborations between private and
public institutions, developing mechanisms for recouping public and
private investment, providing opportunities for more public dialogue
and implementing a robust regulatory regime are some of the main
issues for supporting industry development.
Despite the claim that globalization is eroding the boundaries of
the nation-state, there are enough regulatory, financial and cultural
barriers in place that maintain a national or regional characteristic
to the ways in which commercialization can be carried out. In a
