The latest NERI seminar took place this afternoon in the INTO Learning Centre. Seán Ó Riain discussed the place of enterprise policy in Ireland's economic recovery. Seán is a professor of sociology at the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis . Prof. Riain's current research is on the political economy of the Celtic Tiger, high tech regions, change in state and governance institutions, and the politics of high technology workplaces. An abstract of the paper presented at the seminar and a link to the final document can be found below.
Abstract
The paper begins with a brief review of recent employment growth, locating it within the pattern of the significant changes in Ireland's enterprise and export sectors since the 1990s and identifying some persistent challenges for economic development.
The paper then summarises institutional changes in enterprise and innovation policy over the past decade, providing an overview of Ireland's changing 'system of innovation'. Irish economic development continues to be dogged by significant structural dilemmas, including disconnected export and domestic sectors, failure of 'leading sectors' to diffuse organisational and technological developments throughout the economy as a whole, the unusual character of an export sector dominated by foreign firms, and an innovation system that has seen increased resources but a narrowed focus.
The remainder of the paper examines how the innovation system might be reconfigured to address these structural dilemmas across the areas of enterprise support, technology and innovation, capital and financing, and labour, education and training.