The Power of an Idea and its ?Trickle-down? Effect: The Case of the Innovation System Approach in Canadian and Quebec Science and Technology Policy.

Since its development in the 1990s, the Innovation System (IS) approach has had a considerable influence on science and technology policies in OECD countries. Most of these countries have adopted IS policies aimed at intensifying collaboration between knowledge-producing institutions and private organizations in order to increase economic competitiveness. This study draws upon P. Bourdieu?s conception of culture as well as on the concept of hegemony developed by Neo-Gramscian scholars. It explores the social logic underlying the massive adoption of the IS approach by policy-makers and civil servants and the processes by which this approach is disseminated throughout the various levels of public administration. Drawing on a theoretical sampling method, 20 semi-structured interviews with policy-makers and employees of the Quebec and Canadian civil service were conducted; a two-year participant observation in a public agency using the IS approach as an analytical framework had taken place prior to conducting the interviews. Results suggest that, rather than being founded on the critical evaluation of a set of possible models, the dissemination and use of the IS approach within the public sector is closely linked to the perceived scientific prestige of the OECD and its affiliated university economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]