The various chapters highlight how the emergence of an integrated global market affects the impact of national innovation policy. What seemed like effective innovation strategies (e.g. policies designed to strengthen the R&D capacity of domestic firms) are no longer sufficient for effective catch-up. The more open and global nature of innovation makes innovation policies more difficult to design and implement at the national scale alone. These challenges are further complicated by new phenomena, such as global value chains and the fragmentation of production, the growing role of global corporations, and the ICT revolution. Where and why a global corporation chooses to anchor its production affects the playing field for OECD and developing economies alike.

Selected as a 2009 Notable Document by the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table.

  - Foreword
  - Acknowledgements
  - Introduction - why innovation matters
  - Competition, innovation and growth - theory, evidence and policy challenges
  - Korea and the BICs (Brazil, India and China): catching-up experiences
  - Priorities for growth in OECD economies
  - The development of global innovation networks and the transfer of knowledge
  - Innovation strategies for growth: insights from OECD countries
  - Different innovation strategies, different results - Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea (the BRICKs)
  - Technology diffusion in the developing world
  - Foreign investment and the development of telecommunications in Latin America
  - Broadband as a platform for economic, social and cultural development - lessons from Asia
  - User-driven innovation and communications development