for the decade 1980 / 1990

The paper shows how the National Innovation System of a country can be detected using a tool called Subsystem-MFA (SMFA), an MFA application to so called subsy tems. The standard subsystem analysis shows the innovation-spillovers of the relevant innovative sectors of a country which are the basis for compiling a system of interlinked sectors due to the most important innovation flows. This system is then turned into graphical form so that the sectors clustering into this system can be shown like a “molecule “ of sectors, giving the national innovation basis. The analysis uses the recent input- output- tables of the OECD for Germany, Japan and the United States for the begin, mid and end of the decade 1980 until 1990. The tables offer a good opportunity to compare the above 3 countries as the used table series were made comparable. To discover innovation-spillovers the analysis uses innovation-indicator-vectors, like R&D-expenditures, coming also from the OECD, which had to be transformed into the suitable form of the IO-tables. The data are aligned into a subsystem approach and deliver an innovation flow matrix of innovation providers and innovation users, which is analysed by a suitable version of the MFA. The results show how the innovation system in Germany, Japan and the United States looks like and how it developed over the decade 1980 to 1990. The results show that there are specific pattern of national innovation systems which differ to some extent between the given countries. These differences can well be interpreted to be due to the specific economic history of these countries. National Innovation Systems 2