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This study draws a historical picture of conceptual linkages of innovation systems (IS) and global value chains (GVC). We used a co-citation technique to map the evolution of these two fields since 1990. We highlighted the connecting nodes over the past three decades. The first decade witnessed a connection between national innovation systems (NIS) and GVC, mediated by regional studies related to industrial clusters and district-based innovation. The tradeoff between tacit sticky local and codified transferable global knowledge and innovation and learning's importance in upgrading in GVC generated two new routes in the second decade. In the last decade, although these routes are retained, their mediating nodes have changed with the literature on technology and sustainable transition from IS and the path dependency role in the evolution of districts in global production networks. Recent trends indicate that evolutionary views on economic geography and catch-up may open new opportunities to link the two, and some lessons highlight the need for more structured interactions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]