Editorial ‘Innovation-driven knowledge economies and transformation in the Global South’

Abstract Innovation studies have provided a plethora of theoretical contributions and conceptual frameworks to analyse the features of innovation-driven knowledge economies, based on strong empirical evidence. However, we still do not know enough about the key ingredients of this process in the Global South. One of reasons is connected to the fact that much of the theory and policy of innovation is built taking into account the initial conditions of the North. There is a responsibility of researchers from both the North and the Global South to enrich these processes of knowledge production. This Special Issue contributes to advancing the understanding of innovation in the Global South by bringing into the discussion the green transition, digital transformation, social dimensions, and political issues. It provides novel conceptual and empirical bases for rethinking the structural problems that limit the building of innovation-driven knowledge economies in the Global South.