He said a number of misconceptions have arisen as developed countries strive to become more competitive through innovation. One is that low costs are the key to competitiveness, and the other is that investing in science and technology is a shortcut to innovation.
"We have done empirical research which showed that economies with the strongest growth in real wages were the most competitive. So we learned that what determines competitiveness is not cost," he said.
Instead, a combination of technological advances, investment in staff and ability to change can make organisations more innovative.
"Science and technology are important, but there are other factors which mediate between science and technology and economic results, like growth, productivity and competitiveness. This had a lot to do with human resources and with organisation," he said.
In fact, technology alone can have a detrimental effect if it is not matched by training and a culture of learning.
"In Denmark, when firms introduced a lot of very advanced computer technology in the 1980s, it was found that they actually got a negative impact on productivity if they did not combine this with change in their organisation and investment in people," said Lundvall.
He added that his earlier theories on developing an innovative culture had been distorted since he initially proposed the idea in the 1980s.
"What has happened is that a lot of people, including in the European Commission, use the innovation system as just something about universities and industry, about science and technology innovation."
"But this is not the way we used the concept to begin with. Human resources and organisational issues are also important. It's much broader than just technology. I have spent the last 15 years trying to correct the idea that innovation policy is just something about science, technology and innovation," he said.
Lundvall, whose theories of national innovation systems have been deployed by Finland in the 1990s and are currently being rolled out by the Chinese government, is one of 27 ambassadors of the European Year of Innovation and Creativity.
