Abstract: This chapter argues that the state, broadly construed, helps to construct corporate technological capabilities. Thus, the business-state interaction in the process of technological innovation must be a focus of business history research. Key concepts from social science research on national innovation systems are introduced and it is shown how they mesh with central tenets of recent work in business history. The chapter then advances four ways of thinking about the state — as organization, fisc, system of rules, and normative order — that lead toward potentially fruitful areas for historical research. This research agenda may lead the field toward an ‘interorganizational synthesis’ that builds on and enriches the best of contemporary business history.

Keywords: the state, innovation systems, business history, technological innovation, corporate capabilities, technology policy, R&D spending, government procurement, regulation, nationalism,