Concepts, Approaches and Methods of Institutional Mapping (With an Emphasis on Innovation System Studies)

Utilizing the institutional mapping approach in innovation system studies, in addition to identifying institutional weaknesses and gaps of the systems, provides a beneficial tool for policy learning. the purpose of this paper is to study the concepts, approaches and various methods of institutional mapping which are used in innovation system studies. To attain this purpose, first, we review the researches which are performed by means of institutional mapping method and then we will analyze the methods which are used in these researches. The findings of the study indicate that in the majority of studies, which were performed by means of institutional mapping approach, there are three methods used in representing the institutional mapping of national innovation system. The first method which has been used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) applies the national innovation system’s functions. The second one, the Carpon, Cincera and Bikar method which uses quad-matrices of “objectives-instruments”, “institutions-instruments”, “institutional interactions” and “objective-institution”. The third method acts by combining the national innovation system’s functions with the before-mentioned matrixes, particularly the “institutions-instruments” matrix. Also in some researches, the both methods have been applied. We believe that determining a precise institutional mapping method can be initialized through enumerating the national innovation system’s functions and finally can be accomplished by explicating the objectives, instruments and institutional interactions.