Complex innovation policy systems: Towards an evaluation mix

Abstract

The mix of contemporary innovation policies impacting on a given territory are typically characterised by quite different underlying rationales and instruments. Complexity is further increased by multi-level considerations. Thus policies with different characteristics and from different administrative levels are continually interacting with one another in complex policy systems. These interactions significantly complicate the evaluation of individual policies, and raise a series of difficult questions around how their respective evaluation processes should interact to facilitate learning around the performance of policy systems. This paper contributes with a simplified definition of an innovation policy system as the conjuncture of policy mix and multi-level dimensions, from which a series of steps are proposed for arriving at an evaluation mix relevant for the specific characteristics of a given policy space. These ideas are explored with respect to the case of the Basque Country region of Spain and signal an agenda for further applied policy research.