TOWARDS A NATIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGY FOR COMPETITIVENESSVOLUME 1individual, since part of the knowledge acquired will always be disseminated. Knowledge also fertilizes the<strong>en</strong>tire social <strong>en</strong>vironm<strong>en</strong>t, g<strong>en</strong>erating the foundations for new knowledge and new ideas to emerge.However, this type of support does not occur with other intangible assets, such as the training giv<strong>en</strong> toemployees of companies in a new technology (unless the companies can appropriate the productivity increase ofthe employee), the acquisition of soft technologies (managem<strong>en</strong>t or marketing, for example) or high levelprofessional education.D. NETWORK FAILURES. Networks can be a c<strong>en</strong>tral elem<strong>en</strong>t in innovation, as they permit information andknowledge to be disseminated and they facilitate communication and allow for the key contact to occurbetwe<strong>en</strong> those who have a problem and those who can solve it, or betwe<strong>en</strong> those who need something and thosewho can satiate that need.The key lies in which members of the network not only draw from it, but that also feed it, which producesa much higher collective value. However, the problem occurs because the cost of joining the network does notnormally take into account the value contributed by the new member, which oft<strong>en</strong> discourages theirincorporation. Additionally the value of a network increases as the numbers of its members grow. This explainsthe public interest in creating and fostering it. A new system of telephony or Internet mess<strong>en</strong>ger is “better” asit permits communication with a larger number of people, and so long as this number (or critical mass) is notreached, the exist<strong>en</strong>ce of the network will surely not be profitable and, as such, it will be financiallycomplicated to put it into operation.It is in this light that the chall<strong>en</strong>ges facing Chile today with regard to Internet connectivity throughgreater access to broadband systems should be se<strong>en</strong>.TIME MATTERSAs already cautioned, these four most common kinds of failures in innovation occur differ<strong>en</strong>tly in each ofthe stages of the process and g<strong>en</strong>erally do not occur alone. They can ev<strong>en</strong> occur on top of failures in theprovision of infrastructure, and problems related to the scale or size of the ag<strong>en</strong>ts involved, or to weaknesses inthe institutional framework or in the coordination of the system, prev<strong>en</strong>ting it from operating fully coher<strong>en</strong>tly.This implies that each stage of the innovation process has its own reality and each one can require a differ<strong>en</strong>tsolution framework.[see Figure 1]But there is more. Time.Networks can be a key elem<strong>en</strong>t ininnovation. The key lies in which of themembers of the network not only drawfrom it, but also feed it, which produces amuch higher collective value. However,the contribution of the new member is notdeducted from the cost of joining th<strong>en</strong>etwork, which constitutes a disinc<strong>en</strong>tivefor that.The market failures occur in a dynamicmanner, and their effects can occur overtime. This requires prospecting –lookingto the future and “bringing it to thepres<strong>en</strong>t” – especially in the production ofpublic goods – such as education, sci<strong>en</strong>ceand knowledge – that operate with longmaturing periods. The costs of actingmultiply if the decision to do so is nottak<strong>en</strong> on time.69
TOWARDS A NATIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGY FOR COMPETITIVENESSVOLUME 1All the market failures described above do not occur in a static manner, but rather dynamically, andconsequ<strong>en</strong>tly their effects are not only immediate but can occur over time. This is precisely what forces us tolook towards the future and “bring it to the pres<strong>en</strong>t” so that, based on what the dynamics of the globaleconomy will be, and what role Chile will have in those sc<strong>en</strong>arios, to understand what decisions must be tak<strong>en</strong>now for the country to fully become part of that possible future.This need for prospection is ess<strong>en</strong>tial, especially in the areas that have be<strong>en</strong> defined in the previouschapters as indisp<strong>en</strong>sable for the developm<strong>en</strong>t of the country – such as education, sci<strong>en</strong>ce and knowledge – thathave very long timeframes. This implies that it is practically impossible to act on these factors instantaneously –it is inconceivable to think of changing the educational level of a country in a brief period of time, and also thatthe costs of acting multiply if the decision of doing so is not tak<strong>en</strong> on time.70