| Innovation and technological development are critical for economic development. For this reason many policymakers have made them the basis of industrial policy. Because policymakers perceive benefits from innovation and technology, governments of all ideological dispositions offer a myriad of programs and policies aimed at fostering innovation, ranging from simple contracting and procurement of new products and services, to university-based research funding, and aggressive funding of marketing and commercialization.;Scholars of technological development conceptualize innovation as occurring within a system of economic activity. New ideas, new sources of knowledge, the talented people to create and apply the knowledge, and the resources and materiel to harness these ideas into marketable products and services depend upon what is available in the national context where these activities occur. The institutions within a national society that impact on innovation include the system of education, labour markets, and institutions of science and research. Determining what is the ideal combination and shape of institutions within a system of innovation is an important step to maximize innovation and its benefits. A crucial part of a system of innovation is finance, the focus of this dissertation.;Finance is the capital supply necessary to invest in equipment, research, people and the methods to bring new products and services to the market. Financial practices deliver the money necessary to set-up a firm and turn ideas into the new products driving innovative economies forward. This dissertation delineates the essential elements of financial systems applied to high-technology innovation, specifically in the information and communications technology sector (ICT), and illustrates through three case studies how these elements engage with what is a strategic sector of the economy. It also puts forward an explanation of how finance has a direct effect on the type of innovations that are commercialized. The cases investigated in this dissertation represent three different national financial systems, but show one main pattern for innovation financing rather than three different patterns, contrary to expectations expressed in the literature related to the topics of innovation and national systems of finance. |
