Network position and innovation capability in the regional innovation network

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the positioning of actors characterized by different natures in a regional innovation network and explores how these actors improve their innovation capabilities by assuming prominence or brokering positions. Innovation capability is widely seen to be the driving force in building regional competitive advantage, therefore investigating how the positioning of actors improves their innovation-related activities is relevant in terms of regional competitiveness. This paper builds on a survey conducted on the Sicilian regional area in Italy. A questionnaire was used to collect data concerning the relationships established between actors and the extent to which these relationships impact actors’ innovation capability. Results suggest that regional actors cannot be considered as a homogeneous group regarding their positioning in a regional network and that the innovation benefits of assuming different network positions depend on their nature. This paper offers some theoretical implications to the literature on regional innovation network and practical suggestions to organizations and regional policy makers.     

The Effects of Exogenous Shocks on the Development of Regional Innovation Systems

Drawing on previous studies related to the evolutionary aspects of regional innovation systems (RIS), this paper examines how an exogenous shock reduced organizational thinness, fragmentation and lock-in and thereby facilitated path creation and RIS emergence in a peripheral region. A longitudinal case study approach, based on primary data from 39 interviews conducted between 2008 and 2012, is used to investigate how a region was affected by the sudden entry and subsequent activity of a multinational oil company. A multi-level analysis illustrates how this exogenous shock facilitated change at the firm, public authority and macro (regional) levels and thus provides a holistic understanding of the complex mechanisms that underlie regional transformation. The analysis illustrates how the entry of the oil company reduced organizational thinness by stimulating the establishment of external firms. The existing regional actors then managed to reduce their organizational lock-in by adapting their skills and resource bases to new knowledge provided through interfirm relationships (reduced fragmentation), and this reduced organizational lock-in and fragmentation ultimately strengthened the industrial structure and further contributed to regional path creation. A number of innovations were observed, and in combination with the “thickened” institutional structure, this represented the means for an emerging RIS.     

The Performance of Policy Networks: The Relation between Network Structure and Network Performance

The importance of policy networks has long been emphasized within the field of policy analysis. However, few attempts have been made to investigate the explanatory power of policy networks using the tools and theoretical concepts provided by social network analysis (SNA). This paper aims to address this need by determining if a relationship exists between the structural features of policy networks, their organizing capacities, and their performance. A comparative case study of four networks within the higher education policy sector confirms the assumption related to the existence of such a relation. It is proposed that an efficient and innovative policy network consists of a heterogeneous set of actors that are centrally and densely integrated. Furthermore, while the level of network heterogeneity is positively related to the function of resource mobilization in the process of policymaking, the level of centralized integration promotes the function of prioritizing. These findings are believed to contribute to our understanding of policymaking in contemporary society. The current paper indicates that a significant explanatory power exists in the concept of policy networks and that SNA is one way of advancing its possibilities.     

网络关系嵌入、创新扩散与旅游企业创新绩效

作为服务业创新的重要分支,旅游业创新研究还处于起步阶段,旅游企业创新绩效及其影响机制研究还很缺乏。本文以嵌入性理论为切入点,构建了旅游企业网络关系嵌入与创新绩效之间关系的理论模型,并以四川剑门蜀道核心景区（剑门关）周边旅游企业为样本,运用回归模型实证研究了关系嵌入性如何通过创新扩散来影响旅游企业创新绩效。研究结果显示：旅游企业网络的强关系有利于提升企业的创新绩效,企业间互惠程度和关系的持久性与创新绩效正相关,创新扩散在旅游企业关系嵌入和创新绩效关系中起部分中介作用。     

湖北宋墓分布的地域差异及其产生原因

湖北宋代墓葬形制分布的空间差异与宋代的路的划分相吻合,对照文献中有关入宋后迁入今湖北地区的移民情况,可以认为宋墓形制空间分布的差异,主要由官方组织和民间自发的移民活动造成。     

Smart specialization policies: innovative performance models from European regions

ABSTRACT

This research seeks to identify the factors that best explain the performance of regional innovation in Europe, in the era of smart specialization. Data were collected from the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2016 and a quantitative methodology was followed using linear regressions as statistical methods. The results allowed us to reach four explanatory models of performance innovation for Innovative Regions Leader, Strong, Moderate and Modest. Some policies have also been suggested as possible regional innovation measures that can help policy makers to clarify and improve the innovation performance of these regions.     

网络、国家与亚洲地域秩序：华人研究之批判性反思

以华人网络、国家和亚洲地域秩序为切入点,分析和反思了海外华人研究中若干关键性的理论和方法论问题;探讨了华人网络与市场、社会与国家、地方化与全球化的互动关系;解构和重估了华人社会和商业网络的历史性、空间化、制度性和局限性,华人网络在与国家和市场的频密互动中发挥作用,并在这一进程中调适自身的机制和功能。     

Social enterprises in regional innovation systems: a review of Finnish regional strategies

The aim of modern innovation policies is to enhance the innovation capability of regions, their organizations and people. Regional innovation system (RIS) theory has been one of the most popular frameworks for realizing innovation policies. Yet, adopting the perspective of sustainable innovation policy where innovation is also seen as a solution to various societal and environmental problems has been slow. Social enterprises (SEs) are discussed here as a means to address those problems, particularly through collaboration between sectors and focusing on social sustainability. The aim of this paper is to identify whether and in what way SEs are communicated as an innovative solution and as a source of innovations for economic and development activities through regional strategies. The data consist of regional innovation and business strategies from all Finnish regions, analysed using qualitative content analysis. We argue that there is a need to go deeper and include effective support mechanisms for SEs in these documents. Better inclusion of SEs as part of innovation systems and communicating this through regional strategies would help to develop SEs and to have them perceived as potential innovators and active entrepreneurial actors in innovation systems contributing to economically, environmentally and socially sustainable development.     

How Electoral Systems Can Influence Policy Innovation

This paper argues that in certain areas of policy, electoral systems can influence policy innovation (how early countries will adopt certain policies). Electoral systems influence the number of parties that win representation and thereby influence the diversity of perspectives included in the policymaking process. It is argued here that this diversity facilitates elite and public consideration of new issues and ideas, and consequently, it leads to earlier debate and action on these issues and ideas. This dynamic is particularly relevant to controversial issues and ideas that major parties may be hesitant to address and that minor parties may be more incentivized to promote. In this paper, two issues/ideas are considered: extending rights to same‐sex couples and making material sacrifices to protect the environment. I show that countries with more proportional electoral systems tend to act earlier to protect the environment and that they tend to be early adopters of civil union legislation. These results are also supported by World Values Survey data showing public preference patterns that support these policy outcomes.     

Network topologies as collective social capital in cities and regions: a critical review of empirical studies

This paper outlines a theoretical framework to study collective social capital at the local scale using social network analysis. To do so, it develops a review on empirical research that found evidence regarding the impact of networks on the performance of cities and regions. Eight network topologies are identified with collective social capital: size and composition, connectivity, closeness, clustering, small world, openness, centralization and heterophily. The paper inquires into the effects of these properties concluding that they influence two aspects that are highly relevant for territorial development: they facilitate the diffusion of information and they foster cooperation among actors. Results help tracing roots among three different academic fields: literature on social capital, local and regional economics, and social network analysis. Furthermore, the article suggests a framework to obtain relevant conclusions regarding political and economic aspects of territorial capacities.     

Universities in inclusive regional innovation systems: Academic engagement and uneven knowledge use in Brazil

The purpose of this paper is to spatially and regionally examine academic engagement within Brazil, identifying patterns. Moreover, our investigation can contribute to a better understanding of how knowledge can be turned into a tool to fight regional inequality. We depart from two hypotheses: first, universities situated in peripheral regions interact more with companies from relatively more dynamic regions, and second, in the absence of industrial knowledge demand, universities tend to collaborate more closely with a diverse range of stakeholders in the region. To evaluate these hypotheses and find empirical evidence, we consider 4497 research groups and 4603 nonacademic organizations as “nodes” connected by 8830 collaborations throughout all Brazilian regions. Social network tools are used to illustrate the spatial and regional dimensions of academic engagement more accurately. The results show that academic engagement is not regionally homogeneous, demonstrating essential differences regarding local nonacademic partnerships. Innovation policies, which encourage only university–firm interactions, perpetuate regional inequality.     

Intermediaries in Regional Innovation Systems: High-Technology Enterprise Survey from Northern Finland

Intermediaries play an important role in national as well as in regional innovation systems, especially in innovation policy. In linking organizations within an innovation system, intermediaries are focusing on technology transfer, commercialization of ideas and funding. This research focuses on the role of intermediaries in high-technology product development in northern Finland. Based on a survey of 168 high-technology enterprises, funding services are regarded as the most important activity of intermediaries. Our results show that finance matters: a key actor within the Finnish innovation system in terms of direct funding and indirect collaborative resourcing, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES), is considered the most important public sector organization in private sector product development. The survey also reveals that growth-driven companies with emphases on product innovation and high levels of investment in research and development for increasing their annual turnover benefit the most from intermediaries.     

Regional Innovation Support Systems: Recent Trends in Germany and East Asia

Since the beginning of the 1990s, one can observe a clear shift in the aims of regional policy in industrialized countries from reducing regional inequalities to developing endogenous small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and innovation in regions through regional innovation support systems. Innovation support systems are defined as a group of actively cooperating organizations that support the innovativeness of SMEs. An innovation support system consists of all agencies found in three support stages, namely the provision of general information, technological advice and joint R&D projects, between firms (of which technology-following SMEs are the main group), higher education institutes (HEIs) and public research establishments (PREs). Agencies found in these stages try to help to solve innovation problems mainly of technology-following SMEs by either giving them advice themselves or by referring them to other agencies in a further stage of support. The agencies can be mainly supra-nationally, nationally or regionally initiated. This paper aims at comparing these regional innovation support systems in Germany and East Asia, that is Japan and South Korea, both concerning the instruments used, their impact on regional economic development, their level of organizational embeddedness in regions and the ability of regions to coordinate innovation support policies. The main conclusions of the paper are that there are similarities between the regional innovation support systems found in the countries when it comes to policy instruments, but that the countries differ concerning their level of regional embeddedness and the abilities of regions to coordinate innovation support policies. The paper also tentatively concludes that in countries where regions have the ability to coordinate policies into integrative innovation support systems, the impact on regional economic development tend to be larger than in countries where these abilities are lacking, that is where dirigiste and grassroots support systems prevail. One important explanation for the different coordinating abilities lies in the different political-administrative systems found in the studied countries (centralized in South Korea versus federal in Germany). Other factors explaining differences are: a time lag of development policies between countries, differences between the history of supporting SMEs in regions, supra-national support frameworks, the commitment of the political leaders in regions, collective trust and the size of countries.     

The Social and Economic Performance of Australia's Large Regional Cities and Towns: Implications for Rural and Regional Policy

Australia's large regional cities and towns display wide variation in how they are adjusting to the socio‐economic transitions occurring in Australia. That variation is exposed using a multi‐variate model analysing performance on a range of socio‐economic variables over the decade 1986 to 1996 for 122 cities and towns with populations of 10 000 and above at the 1996 census. Those places are classified into seven clusters of community performance reflecting opportunity/vulnerability, and their spatial patterns are mapped. The resulting framework is then used to show how the recent geography of the socio‐economic performance of the large regional cities and towns has a distinctive selectivity and contributes to opportunity in some places and the vulnerable performance of others. The influence of that selectivity can be seen in the mismatched geographic patterns evident from an analysis of shares of national population and employment change, investment in non‐residential construction, levels of welfare dependency, and the ratio between household income tax generation and transfer benefits received. The paper uses the insights drawn from that analysis to pose questions suggesting the need to rethink national policy perspectives for addressing change in non‐metropolitan Australia.     

浅论区域创新及其系统的构建

本文重新界定了创新的涵义,讨论了影响创新扩散的因素,并在此基础上构建了区域创新系统,认为区域创新系统是以企业为创新主体,与区域内科研院校、政府部门及中介机构等创新环境要素相互影响、相互作用形成的协同发展的整体。并根据系统运行机制,提出建议,以加强系统的创新能力,促进经济发展。     

区域旅游业竞争力:二维度分析模型

本文在对区域旅游业竞争力现有研究进行回顾和评述的基础上,结合区域旅游业发展的实践和竞争力发展特征,构建起了区域旅游业竞争力的二维度分析模型,并对模型建构的思路和内容进行了分析和探讨。     

Network Structures within Policy Processes: Coalitions,Power, and Brokerage in Swiss Climate Policy

The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is a prominent approach to investigate the formation of coalition and their impact on policy outputs. Although the ACF combines both the network structures of a political process with actors' values and belief systems, most empirical tests focus mainly on beliefs rather than network structures. Considering a relational approach makes particular sense when one wants to investigate the structural patterns of a subsystem and to assess coalition formation and maintenance. The author therefore proceeds by taking two steps to study the existence of coalitions, power relations, and policy preferences: first, social network analysis frames the empirical study of network structures, based on the assumption that common beliefs are reflected in relations among actors involved in policy processes. Second, using a sophisticated mathematical algorithm, the multicriteria analysis furnishes a systematic evaluation of the elite's belief system. This methodological combination constitutes the added value of this research and allows for testing to establish if common beliefs are reflected in network structures.     

Linking Technology Foresight and Regional Innovation Activities: Network Facilitating Innovation Policy in Lahti Region,Finland

During recent years a growing body of literature has been published on regional innovation systems and regional foresight activities. However, not so much attention has been paid on modelling the connection between these two areas of research. This article proposes a model on how to use results of regional technology foresight in generating practical innovation processes in a region with mainly synthetic knowledge infrastructures. The model draws upon practical experiences from Lahti region, Finland, where the concept of network facilitating innovation policy has been adopted as part of the regional development strategy.     

In Search of Causality: A Regional Approach to Urban Growth in Eighteenth-century England

The simple equation of industrialisation and urbanisation contains much truth: recent national surveys confirm that rapid coal-based industrial growth spawned massive urban development in Britain. And yet at the local level a wide diversity of growth experiences reflect a complex and overlapping nexus of growth stimuli which defy attempts at generalisation. In taking a regional perspective, this paper seeks to occupy a productive middle ground in this ongoing debate. Placing urban growth in north-west England into its real economic and geographical context, it recognises the complexities of urban growth but transcends the narrowness of the particular. In so doing, it challenges some of the certainties of industrial urbanisation, emphasising instead the importance of rural industry, urban commercial functions and inter-place linkages. Most fundamentally, it argues for a more nuanced understanding of the geography of causality.     

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.