Knowledge Production in European Regions: The Impact of Regional Strategies and Regionalization on Innovation

In the last 15 years, the regional scale was used to implement innovation strategies in European Union. Departing from the discussion of the relevance of innovation policy at the regional level, the article benefits from the knowledge production function framework to estimate patterns considering 175 European regions. It is intended to understand whether regional innovation strategies developed and applied between 1994 and 2001 were successful at an aggregated level in contributing for knowledge creation measured in terms of patents and high technology patents. The results underline the relevance of private R&D expenditure and medium and high technology employment to increase patent numbers. The models suggest also that administrative regionalization may be important to regional innovation and that the creation and implementation of a regional strategy have a positive contribution for high tech innovation.     

Delocalization Patterns in University–Industry Interaction: Evidence from the Sixth R&D Framework Programme

Increasing university–industry interaction (UII) and university contribution to the local economy are compatible—conventional wisdom would say. However, similar to other university activities, interaction with industry may be limited due to a lack of absorptive capacity in local firms. The data of those participating in the European Union's (EU's) Sixth R&D Framework Programme (FP6) were used to obtain values for the number and, notably, the budgets of UII projects at the regional level for the EU27. Two types of interactions were considered: inside and outside the region. Our analysis indicates that universities from regions whose firms have low absorptive capacity participate more often in FP6 projects with firms outside the region. Our results highlight the value of policies that facilitate firm R&D to enhance collaboration with regional universities.     

Determinants of the Uneven Regional Participation of Firms in European Technology Programmes. The 'Low R&D Trap'

Technology is of key importance to the growth of regional firms and economies. Research has shown the association between low technology development or take-up and regional disparities. Hence technology policy is moving closer to the heart of regional policies. European innovation programmes are intended to involve firms, large and small, in international technology research and development networks. The paper focuses on the involvement of Spanish firms in such programmes. Participation tends to be low if business R&D, presence of large firms, and the development of regional innovation systems are also low. Creation of R&D infrastructure through the Structural Funds has now to be prioritized at EU level and also define a new scheme of sectoral priorities in order to support R&D innovation activities in fields diverse from high-tech, if regions are to escape the 'low R&D trap'.     

Mapping the Geography of R&D: What Can We Learn for Regional Innovation Policy in the Czech Republic and Beyond?

Administrative regions do not necessarily correspond to areas that are homogenous in terms of innovation intensity. Although this has been recognized in the literature, quantitative evidence that explicitly considers this problem is rare. Using spatial exploratory analysis on detailed regional data derived from a census of R&D performers in the Czech Republic, we identify local spatial clusters of R&D activities and assess the extent of their (mis)match with administrative borders. Overall, the results support the arguments for regionalization of innovation policy. However, the existing policy units do not appear well suited for this purpose. On one hand, there is a need for policy coordination between multiple administrative regions. On the other hand, however, there are diverse patterns within them. Similar problems are likely to haunt the regionalization process in many other countries, which is alarming, as the regional accent of innovation policies becomes ever more vehement over time.     

New tech spaces for old tech places? Exploring the network of research and technology organizations across North Italian Regions

This paper explores the industrial affiliation and linkages of research and technology organizations (RTOs) in nine North Italian regions highly specialized in advanced manufacturing and introduces a methodology to assess the potential for a cross-regional technology platform. RTOs are supposed to operate in the development and application phases of innovation and are expected to provide access to key enabling technologies and R&D infrastructures. An original survey panel of 55 Italian RTOs is used and Social network analysis is introduced to assess the potential of RTOs to operate as a single cross-regional platform across key industrial and technology domains. Centrality measures are used to build an empirical model on the factors that drive the higher centrality of RTOs. Centrality is increased by convergence on few key technology priorities and is positively correlated with collaborative ventures, the number of contracts with firms and the presence of distinctive R&D infrastructures. Such a platform rests on specialized regional hubs, it operates with no gatekeepers and it only partially exploits geographical and technological proximity within the network. Future research avenues are discussed to improve the function of technology diffusion of RTOs in a cross-regional perspective.     

Regional Competitiveness in Central European Countries: In Search of a Useful Conceptual Framework

The goal of this discussion paper is to examine the relevance of selected influential theoretical and conceptual approaches to regional competitiveness for specific geographical and institutional contexts of Central European (CE) regions. We argue that strategic documents and policies (both nation- and region-wide) in CE countries are based on un-critical applications of a few popular concepts of competitiveness that were originally proposed and mainly applied in Western European and US regions. Existing empirical evidence documents a strong role of exogenous factors of competitiveness in CE regions, the in-house character of firm innovations and weak demand for innovations, and other impediments of R&D collaboration. We suggest that these (and other factors) limit the applicability of concepts such as regional innovation systems and Porterian clusters in the context of many CE regions. On the other hand, we argue that some other concepts such as the global production networks perspective or related variety and economic complexity can provide some relevant and inspiring frameworks for analysing regional competitiveness in CE countries.     

Managing Long Distance and Localized Learning in the Emilia Romagna Life Science Cluster

The paper provides some empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the “open innovation” model in the life science cluster of Emilia Romagna (a region of Italy), comparing the network of R&D collaborative activities in public research organizations (PROs) and the network linked to R&D collaborative activities in private firms. By presenting the main results of a field research in the life science sector in Emilia Romagna, we are contributing to the recent debate focused on the crises of the old “closed innovation” model and the rise of the “open innovation” model. Our survey consists of both primary data deriving from face-to-face interviews with researchers and entrepreneurs, and secondary data extracted from the Internet, the PubMed database, and from the European Patent Office. Our work is based on the analysis of a representative sample of 30 research groups in PROs, 2173 scientific articles published by the interviewed scientists, and a representative sample of 78 private firms.     

中国省区间的外资R&D知识溢出及其空间差异研究——基于随机前沿生产模型(SFA)的实证

基于随机前沿生产函数构建的区域知识溢出模型,实证分析了中国省区层面的外资R&D空间溢出效应及其差异。结果显示,我国外资R&D活动不仅对本省存在溢出影响,对邻省亦有重要贡献;东部省区同时受益于其东、中部邻省的外资R&D溢出效应,但中西部省区均只从同一区域且邻近省份的外资R&D活动获益。研究还发现,我国三大区域内部均已结成紧密的省际空间联系,外资R&D双向溢出显著;但东部与中部省区的空间关联度不强,外资R&D呈单向溢出格局;而中部与西部之间目前仍存在明显的空间分割特征,造成彼此之间互无溢出。     

Building a Geographical Political Economy of Closure: The Case of R&DCo in North East England

ParentCompany 's decision to close R&DCo in North East England caused the loss of highly skilled scientific and technical jobs. R&DCo was a "white‐collar" R&D operation and supplier of services to ParentCompany 's lead factories in the East Midlands and South West regions. The economic and social costs of closure were acute for the North East with its relatively weak growth, high unemployment and limited R&D activity. This paper argues that a clearer understanding and progressive response to such closures may benefit from a conceptualisation founded upon spatialised social relations and characterised by a social process of production that unfolds over time, across space and in place. Periodised in episodic socio‐spatial "moments", a historically evolving social process of closure reveals differential potential—contingent upon specific conjunctures of structural forces, social agency and the particularities of places—to enable and/or inhibit intervention through public policy and institutional action and political mobilisation and resistance.     

Varieties of Innovation and Welfare Regimes: The Leap from R&D Projects to the Development of City-regions

In the varieties of capitalism, welfare capitalism, and systems of innovation literatures, the university is a critical actor as public employer, trainer and provider of several public goods. However, there is relatively weak enquiry into the spatial and institutional characteristics of university-led economic development and a relative neglect of the political economy and organizational features of embedded R&D projects in urban and regional planning. We argue that technical projects, far from being stand-alone entities, have taken on the broad characteristics of the university and city-regional development mandate in where they reside. The article is based on an exploratory study of university–industry R&D projects in six city regions of Finland. We show that: (a) the shifting role of universities reflects a changed context for the welfare state in which the “public” debate occurs; (b) These create distinct issues of legitimacy and coalition-building in local economic planning which give rise to diverse regional interpretations of single technology programmes; (c) We categorise three general types of models of R&D projects in universities and propose tentative categories of contributions to “public knowledge”. This diversity of interpretations and outcomes leaves us optimistic regarding the ability of city-regions to adapt and plan for the future against a changing welfare state that shapes the university's role, yet more cautious about any clear-cut “public knowledge” emerging from such technical projects.     

Fostering place-based innovation and internationalization – the new turn in German technology policy

Since the mid-1990s German technology policy has experienced a paradigmatic shift from standard grant schemes towards a region-oriented and competition-based R&D policy. Currently, a new policy experiment, the InterClust contest, is under way, trying to simultaneously foster place-based innovation, R&D internationalization and the internationalization of innovative places. The current paper analyses the new policy, relating it to the recent literatures on heterogeneous firms and on cluster-life cycles, and presents results from a firm survey performed in 21 winner regions of InterClust. Findings show that the new funding scheme takes insights from recent theoretical developments into account and addresses important impediments to firm and cluster internationalization. Although it is too early for an overall assessment, it is argued that the long-term impact will critically depend on the inflow of heterogeneous knowledge and the strength of intra-regional mobilization effects.     

Regional planning of R&D and science–technology interactions in Andalucia: a bibliometric analysis of patent documents

Andalucia is a southern European LFR (less‐favoured region) with a high degree of self‐government that has allowed it to design its own R&D policies that complement those implemented throughout Spain and the European Union (EU). Recently the Regional Government passed the Third Andalucian Research Plan 2000–2003, an R&D planning instrument that, as has become customary in previous Plans, attributes considerable budgetary weight to the scientific aspects of the science–technology–industry system (Andalucia allocates more of its own resources to promoting research than any other region in Spain). This paper provides deeper insight into the role played by science in driving the technological development of Andalucia, one of the LFRs of the EU. The aim was to answer five fundamental questions: How is basic science utilized by industry in Andalucia? Which sectors are the most dynamic in the employment of scientific know‐how? Which scientific fields are most in demand by industry? Which types of institution utilize scientific knowledge most profusely? What delay is there in incorporating science into technology? The methodology that has been applied for investigating the links between science and technology is based on scientific citations in patent documents (NPC). The results in this article provide relevant information about the interconnection of scientific and technological systems and thus constitute a good point of reference for the development of future R&D plans.     

R&D Cooperation in Innovation Systems—Some Lessons from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS)

Our paper summarizes some of the main results of the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS) as far as they are discussed in this special issue of European Planning Studies . The overall target of the ERIS project is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of determinants crucial for the innovation potential of any region, i.e. innovative and non-innovative manufacturing firms, business services and research institutions, as well as the innovative linkages and networks between these actors. Empirical research is based upon almost 8600 questionnaires collected in 11 European regions. Results confirm some of the common hypotheses on the relationship between space and innovation networks but others are contrary to existing scientific knowledge. Obviously the impact of national innovation systems on the innovation activities of manufacturing firms in a given European region is-at least-as strong as the impact of the respective regional innovation system. The spatial range of innovative linkages significantly depends on the size, the type of the cooperation partner, the R&D intensity and the industry of the analysed manufacturing firm. For example, the higher the technology intensity of the industry, the greater is the need of each firm to use intraregional knowledge via innovation linkages. It is therefore an important task in regional innovation policy to promote network-building among firms and other actors of a regional innovation system and to interlink these intraregional networks with national and international knowledge sources.     

QUANTIFYING KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS USING SPATIAL ECONOMETRIC MODELS

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to develop our understanding of the somewhat diffuse nature of technological externalities and space by associating a geographical dimension with the sectoral dimension. Using a panel data set containing French patents as well as private and public research expenditures by industry and region over the period from 1992 to 2000, this paper estimates a knowledge production function. The region‐ and industry‐specific nature of the sample data allows us to empirically examine spatial spillovers associated with public and private research expenditures in own‐ and other‐industry sectors for our sample of 94 French regions. We find that the largest direct and indirect effects are associated with private R&D activity that spills across industry boundaries. However, since Jacobs externalities decrease more drastically with distance than MAR externalities, our results also point to different optimal strategies for regional versus national officials.     

How Do Pre-existing R&D Activities in a Region Influence the Performance of Cluster Initiatives? The Case of French Competitiveness Clusters

This article explores the diversity of 66 French competitiveness clusters, which were all accredited in 2005 according to the same specifications, by characterizing the initial context in which they emerged and taking a close look at the link between this initial context and their current performance. Since French competitiveness cluster policy is based on state co-funding of R&D projects, we establish a typology based on a multiple component analysis and a hierarchical ascending classification of the R&D potential of the cluster's territory, the respective R&D efforts of companies and academic laboratories, the kinds of actors setting up the cluster and their pre-existing relationships. We then measure the differences among the five classes relating to their clusters' capacity to obtain state funding for their projects. Our results show that initial context can partially explain competitiveness clusters' performance. Competitiveness clusters in territories possessing significant R&D resources, and involving large companies capable of organizing projects, are the most efficient in obtaining state funding. In contrast, competitiveness clusters without prior cooperation experience perform poorly.     

Challenges to Bridging Discrepant Knowledge Bases: A Case Study of the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy

From a theoretical perspective, it is possible to enhance the innovation of firms and institutions by combining the analytic (scientific) knowledge base of research and development (R&D) institutions with the synthetic (practical) knowledge base of industries. Such combinations of knowledge are also believed to support regional development. One such initiative to bridge knowledge from the R&D sector and industry is the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy (NORCOWE). However, as our case study shows, it is hard to bridge knowledge from these two partner groups. We found that this is mainly because of differences in the partners' timelines (long versus short), their attitudes toward knowledge (research based versus experience based), application of the knowledge (knowledge per se versus commercialization), and organizational dimensions (linear/closed process versus interactive/open process). These differences show that the knowledge bases of these two groups may not just be different; they can also be seen as discrepant. We also argue that the NORCOWE initiative is influenced by a “policy push” logic. This implies that the initiative was not properly embedded in the industrial or R&D institutions before being launched, but was instead driven by a political will to promote the development of a new renewable energy source.     

Persistence of innovative activities in times of crisis: the case of the Basque Country

By drawing on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing and service sector firms, the changes in firms’ innovation expenditures that have taken place since the onset of the 2008 economic crisis are analysed, as is the relationship between such changes and the location of the company. Special focus is placed on firms in the Basque Country. Compared to other Spanish regions, the Basque Country differs in terms of its fiscal status, its earlier experience of crises, its innovation performance and its greater focus on innovation-related policies. Our results show that the impact of the crisis on firms’ innovation expenditures in the Basque Country has indeed differed from that in comparable Spanish regions. Even after controlling for sectoral differences and for detailed characteristics at the firm level, firms with R&D employment in the Basque Country showed a significantly lower probability of abandoning innovation activities and even a somewhat higher probability of increasing their innovation efforts. This regional effect is especially significant for small and medium-sized enterprises.     

Big Pharma's Internationalization of R&D to China

China's increasing integration into the global pharmaceutical value chain is occurring at a time when big pharma's traditional R&D model has entered a period of crisis, and when China faces significant challenges in providing healthcare for its huge and rapidly ageing population. Despite China's ambitions of promoting its own pharmaceutical sector, it is likely to continue to depend for some time on significant contributions from foreign companies. While this situation provides considerable opportunities for big pharma companies to expand their markets in China, they are also hoping that offshoring aspects of their R&D to China may contribute to reconfiguring their current R&D model with its weak record of producing new drugs. Drawing on interviews with a small number of pharma R&D centres in Shanghai, patent analyses and industry reports, we provide insights into both the challenges and the opportunities associated with the early stages of establishing such centres in an emerging region with a rapidly growing market. This paper contributes towards a more nuanced view of the internationalization of R&D in emerging regions.     

Integration Processes in European Research and Development: A Comparative Spatial Interaction Approach Using Project Based Research and Development Networks,Co‐Patent Networks and Co‐Publication Networks

This study focuses on integration processes in European Research and Development (R&D) by analyzing the spatiotemporal dimension of three different R&D collaboration networks across Europe. The studied networks cover different types of knowledge creation, namely project‐based R&D networks within the European Union (EU) Framework Programmes (FPs), co‐patent networks, and co‐publication networks. Integration in European R&D—one of the main pillars of the EU Science Technology and Innovation policy—refers to the harmonization of fragmented national research systems across Europe and to the free movement of knowledge and researchers. The objective is to describe and compare spatiotemporal patterns at a regional level and to estimate the evolution of separation effects over the time period 1999–2006 that influence the probability of cross‐region collaborations in the distinct networks under consideration. The study adopts a spatial interaction modeling perspective, econometrically specifying a panel generalized linear model relationship, taking into account spatial autocorrelation among flows using eigenfunction spatial filtering methods. The results show that geographical factors are a lower hurdle for R&D collaborations in the FP networks than in co‐patent networks and co‐publication networks. Furthermore, it is shown that the geographical integration is higher in the FP network.     

Context and the role of policies to attract foreign R&D in Europe

This paper explores the effectiveness of policies ‘in’ attracting the foreign research and development (R&D) of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to specific countries in Europe. We develop a macroeconomic investigation covering 29 European countries during the period between 1990 and 2012 in order to address: (a) whether the provision of direct financial support for business R&D is effective for the attraction of foreign R&D; (b) whether direct support is more effective than indirect support for this purpose and (c) whether the link between direct financial support for business R&D and the foreign R&D of MNEs is conditioned by the context within which the support is provided. The results of the analysis show that, first, the provision of direct financial support is generally effective for the attraction of foreign R&D by MNEs. Second, direct support for business R&D is more effective for this purpose than indirect support. Third, the provision of direct financial support for business R&D yields greater returns in contexts that are more socio-economically suitable for knowledge-intensive, innovative activity.