Abstract

The papers by Fagerberg and Ó Riain offer an opportunity to rethink the issue of the relation between the State and innovation. While they reconstruct in detail the success stories of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ireland, they also point out that the historical contingencies that led to the creation of stable political coalitions supporting innovative industries are not likely to be reproduced. I argue that success stories are not enough for learning the causal structure of the relation between the State and innovation and I call for the development of middle-range theories of action, knowledge and coordination.