Convergence of innovation policies in the European aerospace industry (1960-2000)

This paper contributes to an understanding of the evolution of the space industry and the role innovation policy and industrial change have played in that process. It looks at the impact of business-government interactions on the emerging space industry and how it evolved from the consolidation of aerospace businesses to the government creating national agencies to support the industry (through the use of innovation policy instruments) at the same time that privatization of the aerospace businesses occurred. We conducted a comparative case study of the aerospace industry in three European countries-France, Italy, and the United Kingdom (the U.K.)-that explores the governments' strategies to develop the emerging space industry. These strategies comprise a mix of innovation instruments, including the establishment of government agencies with the mission of supporting the space industry. The space agencies in each country had a common design that enabled the businesses to become global players in the industry. There is a link between the design of innovation policy mixes and the emerging model of European decentralized governance. This paper contributes to the literature by suggesting that government agencies are instruments of innovation policy for developing innovative industries.