The Swedish National Innovation System 1970-2003 - Vinnova

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12.1 R&D expenditure in relation to GDP 2001 12.2 R&D expenditure in Sweden 2001 by performing sector 12.3 Swedish R&D expenditure in different sectors in relation to GDP 1981–2001 12.4 Total R&D personnel (FTE) per capita 2001 44 THE SWEDISH NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM 1970–2003
13 Human Resources The Swedish national innovation system is not at the top of the OECD rankings in terms of the number of higher educated people in the population. However, the situation improved considerably in the 1990s and early 2000s. The Swedish education system has increased its focus on higher education and at the same time increased the education rates considerably in recent years. As a consequence, Sweden is now among the leading countries in the OECD in terms of the rate of increase in the total number of higher educated people, higher educated natural scientists and engineers, as well as in terms of the number of PhDs. The majority of those individuals with a higher education and PhDs in the Swedish national innovation system are employed in the public sector. Of these, most have been educated in social sciences or humanities. An overwhelming majority of those with a higher education in natural sciences and engineering, NSEs, are employed in businesses. Business sector employment of NSEs is highly concentrated to knowledge-intensive business services and high-technology and medium high-technology manufacturing firms. SMEs belonging to industrial groups generally have a substantially larger percentage of NSEs on their payroll than independent SMEs. Business sector employment of PhDs has increased substantially in recent decades. PhD employment is highly concentrated to large industrial groups and the PhD-intensity in SMEs belonging to industrial groups is higher than in independent SMEs. This indicates a considerably higher absorptive capacity in SMEs within industrial groups than in independent SMEs. Outside the business sector, universities and technical colleges dominate in terms of NSEs. The general labour market mobility rates are not particularly high in Sweden and the mobility of researchers from the business sector to universities seems to be low. Importance of higher educated human resources The knowledge and competence of individuals are the most important resources in innovation. The availability of competent individuals to a large extent determines the innovation capacity of innovation systems. Therefore, the volume, distribution and flows of human resources are important for the performance of innovation systems. 52 The distribution and intensity of higher educated workers within different industries should be important determinants for the absorptive capacity for new knowledge in the firms in these industries. Research competence is a particularly important capacity in relations between firms and the science-producing system. The mobility of human resources can be considered as an important factor for knowledge transfer, both within and between sectors. 53 Percentage of higher educated people in the population In terms of the percentage of total population with at least a theoretically based tertiary education, Sweden is ranked twelfth in the OECD’s list. It should be noted that the Swedish education system has historically been less geared towards theoretical higher educations than several other OECD countries. 54 Therefore, Sweden would be considerably more competitive in human resources terms if tertiary educations of a practical or vocational nature were included. In terms of the percentage of tertiary graduated NSEs of the total number of graduates from tertiary education, Sweden is more competitive and is ranked third by the OECD. Leading countries in this respect are Korea and Germany, figures 13.1 and 13.2. In terms of the total numbers of new university degrees in relation to the population size, the Swedish performance has improved substantially in the last two decades, particularly within the field of engineering. This is partly a consequence of structural changes of the engineering education system, marked by a shift towards longer programmes of study, which can more closely be compared with international standards for higher education, and partly a result of a volume expansion of higher education, with a rather strong focus on the field of engineering. The Swedish national innovation system has in the past decade achieved a significant improvement in performance in terms of generating new research graduates. In terms of research graduates between 25 and 34 years of age, Sweden is at the top of the OECD rankings. This indicates that Sweden is taking active steps to build a foundation for future research competence in the national innovation system. This is a consequence of increasing examination pass rates in the Swedish university system in recent years. Sweden is particularly competitive in terms of the number of people with new PhDs in engineering and less competitive within natural sciences. Distribution of higher educated people in the economy A large proportion of those employed people in Sweden who have completed a tertiary education, 78 per cent, are educated in social science, humanities or in some other field than natural science or engineering. About 55 THE SWEDISH NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM 1970–2003 45
Page 1 and 2: V I N NOVA A NA LYSIS VA 2 0 0 4 :1
Page 3 and 4: The present study is part of a larg
Page 5 and 6: 1 Introduction The purpose of this
Page 7 and 8: I. CONCLUDING ANALYSIS THE SWEDISH
Page 9 and 10: Innovation system competitiveness T
Page 11 and 12: 3 Innovation Policy Challenges The
Page 13 and 14: II. INNOVATION SYSTEM COMPETITIVENE
Page 15 and 16: of labour between the large industr
Page 17 and 18: 4.3 Real percentage growth in manuf
Page 19 and 20: 5 Job Creation The Swedish national
Page 21 and 22: 5.2 Employment for men and women in
Page 23 and 24: 6 Innovation Competitiveness The co
Page 25 and 26: 6.1 Multi-factor productivity growt
Page 27 and 28: III. TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE PERFORM
Page 29 and 30: 7.1 Number of patents in the USA (U
Page 31 and 32: 8.1 Scientific publications in inte
Page 33 and 34: 9 Business Innovation Activities Th
Page 35 and 36: 9.1 Business R&D investments in rel
Page 37 and 38: special compilations of R&D data fr
Page 39 and 40: 11 Interaction Patterns Since World
Page 41 and 42: Compared to most other industries,
Page 43 and 44: 11.5 Co-operation arrangements on i
Page 45: 12 R&D Structures The Swedish natio
Page 49 and 50: 13.1 Percentage of active populatio
Page 51 and 52: VI. FINANCING AND INCENTIVE STRUCTU
Page 53 and 54: Switzerland and Turkey show similar
Page 55 and 56: 15 Seed-financing and Venture Capit
Page 57 and 58: 16 Incentive Structures During the
Page 59 and 60: 16.1 Gross government deficits in r
Page 61 and 62: Notes 1 OECD, Economic Surveys, Swe
Page 63 and 64: Bibliography Andersson, T., Globali
Page 65: Williamson, O., The Economic Instit

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