Assessing the national innovation system in a developing country context: A framework and evidence from Thailand

National Innovation Systems (NISs) are a source of considerable policy interest, especially when used to enhance nations’ innovative capacity and competitiveness. The study develops a framework for assessing the status and performance of NISs based on concepts of policy adoption, implementation, and evaluation. The study then examines the case of Thailand, which is building its national innovative capacity using the NIS approach. The issues relevant to Thailand’s NIS are reviewed and the assessment framework is applied. A comprehensive model of the Thai NIS is also conceptualized, and recommendations for Thai innovation policy are made. These recommendations include minimizing conflicts in resource allocation, incentivizing private sector innovation, encouraging universities’ participation in the NIS, and rationalizing the public sector components. Based on these policy recommendations, the study offers a “country-specific” framework for assessing the status and performance of Thailand’s NIS. It is shown that the NIS is a sophisticated yet useful approach to encouraging innovation in the economy. Both commonality and uniqueness exist in developing and individual country NIS, therefore each country has to acknowledge these factors and create an NIS that best fits within its development context.