This edited work offers a multidisciplinary perspective on innovation challenges and innovative practices in the context of developing and transition countries. The contributions mostly embrace a national innovation system approach in an attempt to understand innovation processes and their implications at both macro and micro levels.

Contents: 1. Introduction. A context-specific two-way approach to the study of innovation systems in developing and transition countries Jana Schmutzler, Marcela Suarez, Alexandra Tsvetkova and Alessandra Faggian Part I. The role of public policies in developing and transforming national and sectoral innovation systems 2. From industrialization to innovation: Building the Peruvian National System of Science, Technology and Innovation, 1968-2015 Miklos Lukacs de Pereny 3. State of the National Innovation System of Armenia Tatevik Poghosyan 4. The role of public policies in building-up a national pharmaceutical innovation system in Tunisia: Challenges after the Jasmine Revolution Nejla Yacoub 5. Public policies to orient science, technology and innovation in healthcare towards inclusive development: Evidence from Brazil Cecilia Tomassini Urti 6. The role of public policies in promoting innovations and innovation complementarities in developing countries: The case of Argentinian software industry Hernan Alejandro Morero Part II. Innovation challenges and response strategies in national and sectoral innovation systems: A firm-level perspective 7. Health biotechnology in Malaysia: Issues and challenges faced by the innovative biotechnology firms Gulifeiya Abuduxike and Syed Mohamed Aljunid 8. Collaborating to innovate: The case of the Nigerian mining industry Oluseye Oladayo Jegede 9. Collaboration among Hungarian SMEs in innovation László Csonka 10. Developmental university in emerging innovation systems: The case of the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Bolivia Carlos Gonzalo Acevedo Peña, Walter Mauricio Hernán Céspedes Quiroga and José Eduardo Zambrana Montán  11. The lost tiger in technological catch-up: Lessons learned and implications for latecomer strategic typology Xiao-Shan Yap and Rajah Rasiah 12. Epilogue. Innovation systems in developing and transition countries: What is different, what is missing and what are the implications? Alexandra Tsvetkova, Jana Schmutzler and Marcela Suarez Index

'This book makes important contributions both to theory and public policy. It develops the understanding of the concept national innovation systems by confronting it with the reality of ten developing and transition countries from four different continents. The case studies apply the concept to different sectors and technologies spanning from mining in Nigeria to the health sector in Brazil. Common themes are the importance of informal institutions and the systemic interdependence between national patterns of innovation on the one hand and patterns of interaction among firms on the other. One lesson that policy makers can learn from this diversity of experiences is that getting to know the specificity of your own national innovation system, including how it is linked to the rest of the world, is a prerequisite for smart policy and necessary in order to overcome path-dependency and social exclusion.' --Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Aalborg University, Denmark