South Africa

My book about the changing geography of wine production

My book about the changing geography of wine production

«This book overturns the old paradigm ideas about natural-resource-based activities.
It sheds light on the new opportunities for technological dynamism and catching-up by using science to open novel directions in traditional sectors. It should become a classic in what I expect will be a very important academic debate
and a new trend in
development policy

Carlota Perez
Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia; Cambridge University and University of Sussex, UK


«This excellent book demonstrates better than any other I know the strengths and limits of the concept of a national system of innovation for understanding economic development today.
Any careful student of innovation or development will want to read it.
»

Charles Sabel
Columbia Law School, USA

Universities in emerging economies: Bridging local industry with international science.Evidence from Chile and South Africa

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36(3): 679-702

This article is written in collaboration with Elisa Giuliani.

Emerging economies are now becoming more central in global competition. To achieve this, many countries have invested to develop into ‘knowledge economies’. Universities have a role to play in this transformation, both as generators of new knowledge as well as actors that can interact with the local industry and contribute to its innovativeness. This paper explores, using two case studies in the Chilean and South African wine industry, how universities connect international science to domestic industry. It finds that this connection occurs through a few ‘bridging researchers’, who display particular characteristics compared with their colleagues. Bridging researchers are more ‘talented’ than average researchers, both because they publish more in international journals and/or because they have received awards for their academic work. This finding may have significant policy implications, as policies aimed at strengthening the skills of these researchers should be welcomed in catching-up industries.

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Innovation and Technological Catch-Up. The Changing Geography of Wine Production

Innovation and Technological Catch-Up. The Changing Geography of Wine Production

A book published by Edward Elgar and edited together with Elisa Giuliani e Andrea Morrison about changing geography in the wine industry.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the supremacy of ‘Old World’ countries (France and Italy) in the international wine market has been challenged by new players, such as Australia, Argentina, Chile and South Africa, which are recording stunning performances in terms both of export volume and value. This book demonstrates that such a spectacular example of catch-up goes beyond simply copying new technologies; it entails creative adaptation and innovation, and introduces a new growth trajectory in which consistent investments in research and science play a key role.

«This book overturns the old paradigm ideas about natural-resource-based activities. It sheds light on the new opportunities for technological dynamism and catching-up by using science to open novel directions in traditional sectors. It should become a classic in what I expect will be a very important academic debate and a new trend in development policy
Carlota Perez
Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia; Cambridge University and University of Sussex, UK

«This excellent book demonstrates better than any other I know the strengths and limits of the concept of a national system of innovation for understanding economic development today. Any careful student of innovation or development will want to read it.»
Charles Sabel
Columbia Law School, USA

Here you can read the introduction,
The Changing Geography of Wine Production_Intro

You can buy the book here.


Catching-up Trajectories in the Wine Sector: A Comparative Study of Chile, Italy and South Africa

World Development 38(11): 1588-1602

The article is co-authored with Lucia Cusmano and Andrea Morrison.

From a development perspective an investigation of the changes that have occurred in the wine industry is of particular interest because it provides evidence on how emerging economies have been able to acquire significant shares of the international market in a dynamic sector. Based on novel empirical evidence, this paper shows that emerging countries with diverse institutional models and innovation strategies have actively participated in the process of technological modernization and product standardization. These newcomers in the wine sector have responded particularly effectively to changes in demand, aligning emerging scientific approaches with institutional building efforts and successful marketing strategies.

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Catching up and Sectoral Systems of Innovation: A Comparative Study on the Wine Sector in Chile, Italy and South Africa

Catching up and Sectoral Systems of Innovation: A Comparative Study on the Wine Sector in Chile, Italy and South Africa

World Knowledge Forum, Seoul.

I was invited at a panel on the Economics of Inter- Firm Catch Up discussing how global economic recession, can be an opportunity for late-comers to enter the market and catch up with forerunners.

Download the pdf, Pres World Knowledge Forum 2009-10