Journal of the National Research University Higher School of Economics

The new issue of the Foresight and STI Governance journal (2021 vol. 15. No. 3) analyses the trends in, and various countries’ and sectors’ cases illustrating the transformation of innovative development management models to adapt to the changing context and meet new challenges.

Advanced manufacturing markets drive global development. The ability to master them quickly determines countries’ and companies’ competitiveness. No universal recipes for shaping an effective industrial policy exist anymore. The best strategy is to combine the unique advantages of a particular country. In the paper «New Strategic Approaches to Gaining from Emerging Advanced Manufacturing Markets» Yuri Simachev, Anna Fedyunina, Maksim Yurevich, Mikhail Kuzyk, Nikolay Gorodnyi discuss the structure of these markets, their growth, and the strategies pursued by various economies. Entering advanced manufacturing markets involves the use of different models which combine a wide range of factors. Country cases are presented, illustrating the development of the markets in question.

The paper by Evgeny Balatsky focuses on the innovation market. In the study «Identification of the Technology Frontier» the author describes its main features and patterns. The concept of a technological frontier is introduced - a notional line reaching which rationalises for developing economies the transition from large-scale borrowing of new technologies abroad to developing them domestically. A model for identifying the above border on the basis of international statistics for 61 countries is proposed. Taking the technological frontier into account allows to avoid both undue delays in developing domestic technologies, and a premature transition to creating innovations while missing the possibilities offered by borrowing them.

The global pandemic crisis has called into question the effectiveness of previous growth drivers, encouraging the search for new sources of sustainable development. The post-crisis recovery will take place under the green economy sign, with the fuel and energy sector playing a leading role. In the paper «Green digitalization in the electric power industry» Julia Turovets, Liliana Proskuryakova, Alena Starodubtseva, Vincenzo Bianco analyse the proliferation of green digital technologies, and their impact on the power generation industry in ten countries - the largest energy producers and consumers. The basic national-level industry digitisation areas are identified, and prerequisites and potential socio-economic consequences of applying digital technologies in the electric power industry assessed. 

Denis Klimanov, Olga Tretyak, Uri Goren, Timothy White explore the development of innovative business models in which the digital component is becoming particularly important. Their paper «Transformation of Value in Innovative Business Models: The Case of Pharmaceutical Market» presents the elements, stages, and logic of business model transformation. Effective ways to apply technological innovations with the help of management tools are presented, along with approaches to building an integral system on their basis to meet the needs of key value chain participants.

Designing effective innovation ecosystems remains a challenging, and not always feasible objective. In the paper «Innovation Ecosystems in the Automotive Industry between Opportunities and Limitations» Rikardo daSil'va, Paulo Kaminski, Rafael Marin examine the case of the Brazilian automobile industry as an example of untapped opportunities for building a strong ecosystem. Such ecosystems tend to have complex configurations, and follow a new interaction logic which combines partnership and competition. An internal company environment is described which determines the open innovation context, and the most powerful players in this field.

Apart from the tools for “shaping the future”, many countries also use “backward-looking” approaches to design long-term strategies for switching to a new economic model. A retrospective assessment of successes and failures helps learn lessons, and improve the effectiveness of innovation policy. In their paper «Innovation Policy Learning in Iran’s Development Plans» Kiarash Fartash, Mahdi Elyasi, Amir Ghorbani, Aliasgar Sadabadi show how policy learning changed the understanding of the science, technology and innovation sphere’s contribution to economic development. Various policy learning types and their combinations are described. The authors conclude that technical, conceptual, and social policy learning should be applied to shape a highly effective innovation policy.

Platform solutions help organisations to more efficiently manage information technology. However, implementation issues, and duplication of functionality pose challenges with applying such solutions. The paper «Multi-Framework Implementation of the Problem Management Process» by Ruben Pereira, Isaías Bianchi, Virgínia da Silva Araújo is an attempt to create a non-duplicating maturity model to help organisations meet the above challenges. The model was tested and evaluated by experts from five organisations who found it useful, complete, and effective for optimising the implementation of multi-platform structures.

Given the accelerating pace of change, universities often fail to update their curricula in time, and augment it with new knowledge. Foresight and “shaping the future” competencies are becoming particularly relevant today. However, the exchange of knowledge between the academia and the business sector in this area remains limited. The paper «Teaching Foresight and Futures Literacy and Its Integration into University Curriculum» by Anna Kononiuk, Anna Sacio-Szymanska, Stefanie Ollenburg, Leonello Trivelli presents a special training course as a possible solution to expand university programmes, designed for the entrepreneurial sector, university faculty, and students. The course has a flexible structure. Its modules can be taken in any order, and adapted to meet the needs of different categories of learners. A set of ready-made training paths is provided, to serve as guidelines.

The electronic version of this issue is freely available at the journal’s website, in online libraries e-Library and Cyberleninka, and through mobile applications available at AppStore and GooglePlay. You can buy the paper edition as it becomes available at the HSE’s own shop BookVyshka (20 Myasnitskaya St.), or subscribe to the journal.