Mario-Davide Parrilli, Yitian Lu
The consolidated Innovation System (IS) framework is re-discussed with attention to 'levels' and 'missions' that generally respond to 'grand challenges' that affect mankind (e.g. climate change, global health, inclusive economy). Renovated frameworks are required to consider the dynamism of the global scenario where businesses, governmental bodies, other organisations, networks and consumers interact and innovate at different levels, from technological up to institutional and cultural. This debate is mostly applied to competitive economies (e.g. Europe) but not to catching-up economies, their firms, industries and regions. This paper introduces this debate that is applied to two RISs in China. Our findings show that a dynamic IS needs to be based on a Sustainable Multi-Level Innovation Synergy (SMLIS) between regional innovation systems (RIS) and the national innovation system (NIS), where the NIS identifies the national and global 'grand challenges' which are addressed through 'mission-oriented' and 'transformative' innovation policies, while each individual RIS determines the regional direction of this response by designing specific sustainable strategies and actions that address the related 'regional challenges'. This is important in catching-up economies, where the regions often lack adequate resources, skills, and capabilities, while having their institutional and industrial path-dependencies.