Don Scott-Kemmis - Senior Fellow

Don Scott-Kemmis BSc Agr., MSc (Sydney), MSc (Sussex)

Don Scott-Kemmis is an innovation management and policy researcher and consultant with a particular specialization in innovation systems at the firm, sectoral, regional and national level. He has worked in several countries, in a wide range of sectors including services, ICT, biotech, engineering, automotive and food processing, and in a range of specific innovation and industry development issues. He has consulted to a wide range organizations including the EU, FAO, ILO, UNESCO, World Bank, ASEAN, and DIISR.

After an initial career in natural science, and further graduate studies in the UK, he joined the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, an early leader in the multidisciplinary analysis of innovation. After almost a decade at SPRU undertaking a wide range of studies in several countries he moved back to Australia to join the Centre for Technology and Social Change (TASC), University of Wollongong. At TASC he led several major studies into innovation in Australian industry.

In the 1990s he spent several years in the public sector, initially as the Australian S&T Counsellor to Indonesia, based in Jakarta. His roles in the public sector included Director of Strategy for Biotechnology Australia and S&T Advisor to two Commonwealth Ministers.

In 2001 he joined the ANU as an Associate Professor in innovation, led the Australian innovation systems project (a multi-partner study) and taught courses on Innovation Management, Commercialisation, New Venture Management and Strategy, and Management Skills in the ANU’s MBA Program.

He is currently a Senior Fellow, Centre for Innovation (ACIIC), University of Sydney and an Assoc. Prof. at the University of Technology, Sydney. His research focuses on: innovation and enterprise development; the evolution of industry sectors and clusters; innovation policy for a globalizing and service oriented economy. 

Recent publications include:

v      Entrepreneurial Learning – Who Learns What? International Journal of Small Business Research.- with Deepak Sardana

v      The Mythology of Learning-by-doing in World War II Airframe and Ship Production, International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development.

v      Industry Policy for a Knowledge Economy. Commissioned paper for the Department of Innovation, Industry Research and Science for the Review of the TCF sector, within the Review of the National Innovation System. June 2008

v      Revisiting the Learning and Capability Concepts –Building Learning Systems in Thai Auto Component Firms. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 15, 2 (2007): 67-100 – with Chaiwat Chitravas.

v      Pharmaxis: A Star performer at commercialization crossroads, by. Harvard Business School case study. Product number: 906M93. 2007 – with Deepak Sardana

v      The Evolution and Performance of the Australian Innovation System. Chapter for the Technology and Innovation Management Encyclopedia. Edited by: V.K. Narayanan and Gina O’Connor.  To be published by Blackwell. 2009 – with Judy Matthews.

v      Absorbing Innovation by Australian Enterprises: The Role of Absorptive Capacity.  Report to the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. April 2007 [with A.J. Jones, Erik Arnold, C. Chitravas & D. Sardana]

v      Evolving Approaches to Promoting Commercially-Viable Research: New Challenges and Directions, APEC Science-Industry Linkages Forum, APEC Industrial Science and Technology Working Group, Singapore, 2006

v      No Simple Solutions. How Sectoral Innovation Systems Can be Transformed.  IMPP. ANU June. 2005 (with M. Holmen, A. Balaguer, R. Dalitz, K. Bryant, A.J. Jones, and J. Matthews.)

v      Innovation Systems in Australia.  Chapter in I. Marsh (Ed) Innovating Australia. CEDA; Melbourne. 2004