Systems of innovation theory and the European Union

This article asks whether it is possible to conceptualise the European Union (EU) as a system of innovation in accordance with the rich literature of institutional economics on these matters. By developing four further theoretical nodal points of the system of innovation concept, an analytical framework is proposed that provides an interdisciplinary approach to institution-building processes and system formation for the analysis of the EU. The preliminary conclusion is that, in spite of the recent and rapid formal institutional-building efforts at EU level and its clear process of system-formation, it remains premature to identify a system as such. These findings are widely corroborated by the other articles in this special issue.