Abstract Innovation policies in post-Soviet economies often prioritise technology-oriented R indicator-driven tunnel vision, which prioritises metrics and global rankings over capability-deepening reforms; and accretive institutional layering, which adds STI-compatible instruments on top of unreformed organisational cores, gradually locking the system into symbolic, high-visibility pathways. Together, these processes stabilise a reform trajectory in which STI-compatible models appear self-evident, while doing–using–interacting (DUI) modes, despite their relevance in sectors such as agriculture, logistics, and processing, remain peripheral to policy design. Recognising this mechanism clarifies why capability-deepening trajectories fail to materialise even when DUI practices exist in the economy, and it sharpens analytical expectations about reform patterns in developing and post-Soviet systems. The paper therefore offers a conceptual lens for understanding the reproduction of STI-oriented policy agendas and for analysing when and how alternative innovation imaginaries might gain institutional traction.
Muradzada et al. (Tue,) studied this question.