Finnish Mosaic of Regional Innovation System—Assessment of Thematic Regional Innovation Platforms Based on Related Variety

The emphasis of Finnish innovation policy has very much been on promoting actions that can be labelled as science–technology–innovation mode of innovation, which is based on the production and use of codified scientific and technical knowledge. However, recent research has emphasized also the importance of more experienced-based mode of learning and innovation, which can be labelled as doing–using–interacting mode of innovation. This study is an attempt to shed light on the current development phase of Finnish innovation system facing the new paradigm. The Finnish innovation system is seen as a mosaic of regional innovation systems. The regional innovation systems are analysed through a developed framework including elements of theories of innovation systems and cluster theories as well as two recent national-level strategy documents. One of the main concepts of the study is related variety in regional innovation platforms. This study also aims at creating a pragmatic framework for describing related variety at the regional level by combining aspects from two theoretical frameworks. The empirical data were gathered in a series of workshops in all the Finnish regions during the year 2008. The result maps Finnish thematic regional innovation platforms fuelled by related variety.     

Different Modes of Innovation and the Challenge of Connecting Universities and Industry: Case Studies of Two Regional Industries in Norway

The paper argues that no single formula exists for how universities can stimulate innovation activity and industrial development in a particular region. The type of university–industry cooperation must be fined-tuned according to the knowledge base of the university and to the dominant mode of innovation in the regional industry. This article discusses two different modes of innovation: science, technology, innovation (STI) and doing, using, interacting (DUI). The unit of analysis is innovation and cooperation with universities in two regional industries in Norway, which are dominated by the two modes of innovation: STI (marine biotechnology in Tromsø) and DUI (oil and gas equipment suppliers in Agder). The empirical analyses demonstrate the different roles that universities play in these two regional industries. The University of Tromsø is the main organization behind the development of the marine biotechnology industry in Tromsø and is an important knowledge node and source of biotechnology spin-offs. Equipment suppliers in Agder have become world leaders in some niches, almost without research cooperation with universities. A general lesson is that the dominant mode of innovation in a regional industry makes a difference to the role universities can play in stimulating the development of the industry.     

Characteristics of Collaboration in Product Innovation in the Regional System of Innovation of East Gothia

The focus of this article is on product innovations introduced by firms (establishments) and the collaborations they enter into with other firms and organizations in carrying out this activity. The theoretical framework combines innovation theories with the literature on regional innovation systems and the knowledge-based economy. Empirically we have investigated characteristics of collaboration among manufacturing establishments in the region of East Gothia in Sweden, with specific focus on the number of employees involved in the innovation projects, mechanisms of knowledge transfer between organizations, as well as financing and patenting in relation to product innovations.     

Regional Advantage of Cluster Development: A Case Study of the San Diego Biotechnology Cluster

The concept of “clusters” has become central to regional economic development strategies, especially in the high-technology and biotechnology industries. Numerous studies have examined the significance of industrial clusters and their components, but comparatively less attention has been directed towards understanding the roots and processes of industrial localization. In particular, emerging biotechnology clusters such as that in San Diego have not drawn adequate scholarly attention given their policy implications with regard to clustering and regional development. Based on in-depth interviews, historical archives and participatory observations, this paper examines how the San Diego biotechnology cluster emerged and grew into an entrepreneurial habitat that has nurtured hundreds of biotechnology companies that have produced a series of innovative products. The author suggests that the regional context of the existence of a number of small biotechnology companies rather than a group of large firms, a continuous flow of talent, and leadership that fosters collaborations have been critical in promoting knowledge creation, circulation and accumulation, which are essential to spawning startups. The regional advantage of San Diego in stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation lies in its edge in creating and exploiting knowledge and practices through its entrepreneurs' robust interactions and participation in local communities of practice.     

Innovation,knowledge and relations – on the role of clusters for firms’ innovativeness

ABSTRACT

For more than two decades, theories on regional clusters have inspired economic and structural policies at the European, national and regional levels. Based on the assumption that clusters generate innovation, policy-makers at all levels of governance have adopted instruments and mechanisms to stimulate, resource and sustain clusters. Despite the considerable attention paid to the clustering phenomenon, empirical evidence on to what extent firms’ innovation activities benefit from operating in clusters is scarce and inconclusive. This paper contributes to the micro-foundation of clustering effects by examining the characteristics and activities of cluster firms in relation to their innovativeness. Bridging innovation, management and cluster theories, it is argued that structural and relational embeddedness, relational capital and absorptive capacity influence clustered firms' innovativeness. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling of data from 104 firms in two software and information technology service sector clusters reveals that firms’ structural embeddedness (i.e. frequency of interactions) in clusters and external networks facilitates innovation cooperation. Firms’ absorptive capacity reinforces this positive effect of cluster-internal interactions on innovation cooperation. Results also suggest a substitution effect of trust as relational control mechanisms for formal control mechanisms within the cluster. However, the study finds no significant impact of firms’ innovation cooperation within the cluster (i.e. relational embeddedness) on their innovation success.     

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.     

Multi-level Science Policy and Regional Innovation: The Case of the Munich Cluster for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Knowledge-based industries tend to develop within regional or local clusters that allow for knowledge spillovers, the generation of a critical mass of complementary competencies and skills as for spatial proximity to academic organizations out of which many highly innovative firms have been founded. The prototype of that development certainly is the biotechnology industry which has emerged since the 1970s first in the US where especially small and medium-sized research companies have been established around leading science bases. Following the example of the US biotechnology industry, public policies in many industrialized countries aimed at stimulating cluster formation in biotechnology. This holds true especially for member states of the European Union (EU) where public policy initiatives have been initiated at different territorial levels. This article refers to the Munich pharmaceutical biotechnology cluster and applies institutional and organizational indicators that have been developed in various systemic analyses of technological development and innovation. It will be shown that reforms of the institutional environment in which the innovative organizations are embedded were crucial for the commercialization of biotechnological research in Germany. These reforms have occurred mostly at the regional and national level, whereas the EU played a role especially in establishing the regulatory framework for the biotechnology industry. Organizational indicators will be applied in order to assess the modes of knowledge production within the cluster.     

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.     

区域技术创新的非正式制度和联系:经济地理学的视角

众多区域技术创新的研究案例表明,非正式的制度和联系是区域技术创新成功的重要因素。本文回顾了经济地理学在区域技术创新的非正式制度和联系方面研究的相关理论和研究成果,发现"创新环境"、"非贸易相互依赖"、"地方传言"和"企业衍生"等理论虽然提出并探讨了区域技术创新的非正式制度和联系的属性和特征,却对这种非正式制度和联系的形成原因和影响机制的分析相对较少,对其空间尺度的研究也过度集中于区域尺度。由于当前我国大多数区域内部企业之间的创新联系大部分仍以非正式联系为主,因此对于区域技术创新的非正式制度与联系的形成原因、影响机制及其对创新绩效的影响的进一步研究,将具有非常重要的理论和实践意义。     

Regional Innovation Systems and the Role of State: Institutional Design and State Universities in Turkey

This paper investigates the role of state played in the regional innovation systems through state universities and legal and institutional set-up within Turkey. Initially, the paper will discuss the lack of regional perspective in policy-making that, until very recently, was predominant in Turkey. Secondly, the paper examines two salient laws that have ramifications for regional economics. The key elements in regional innovation systems can be split apart into two sections. On one side there are technology development regions/centres, and university–industry joint research centres. On the other side, taking into account the public research undertaken, there are the state universities, and the role that they play in the earlier mentioned centres/regions. The econometric analysis asserts that each of these elements has a positive and statistically significant effect on the patenting performance of regions.     

Assessing Overall Network Structure in Regional Innovation Policies: A Case Study of Cluster Policy in the West Midlands in the UK

Revisiting the theoretical roots of the key concepts of “embeddedness” and “networks” that underpin many recent regional innovation polices, this paper strives to achieve a more systematic understanding of the overall network structure of geographic agglomerations, which helps to form a more convincing model of regional development based on learning. This also helps to establish an analytical framework with indicators to assess the overall network structure in regional innovation policies. Employing the framework, the examination of cluster policy in the West Midlands highlights its weakness in addressing the overall cluster network structure and the contingent factors influencing the structure. The analysis suggests that there may be similar weaknesses in other regional innovation policies and the theories underpinning them as they share a common weakness in addressing the structural characteristics of overall networks.     

Changing regional systems of innovation in Greece: the impact of regional innovation strategy initiatives in peripheral areas of Europe

In the context of convergence and cohesion between the European regions, the promotion of innovation in regions that are in different phases of development has been a central objective of European regional policy. For this purpose, the European Commission has launched many innovation schemes and many European regions have conducted initiatives of this kind. In this article, based on the implementation of successive European regional innovation projects in three Objective 1 regions in Greece, namely Central Macedonia, Western Macedonia and Thessaly, the trajectory and the changes that have occurred in their system of innovation are examined. At the outset, considering the outcomes of the first phase of the RTP/RIS exercise, the obstacles in forming these regions' dynamic innovation systems are identified. Thereafter, upon the outcomes of the follow-up exercise of RIS+projects, an imminent change in these regions is observed, highlighting the marking of an innovation-oriented policy addressed to create a supporting institutional framework and shaping the regional innovation environment. Based on these observations, it is argued that European regional policy, via these innovation schemes, has significantly contributed to the reinforcement of innovation systems of participating regions.     

Regional Innovation Systems and Economic Performance: Between Regions and Nations

This article aims at assessing the diversity of regional innovation systems and their economic performance in Europe. We propose to adapt the social systems of innovation and production (SSIP) framework at the regional level by identifying the specific arrangements of each part of the innovation and production system. Three key features of European regions are investigated using this framework: the diversity of regional SSIP, the interplay of regional and national determinants of such systems, and the impact of SSIP on regional performance. We identify a typology of regional configurations resulting from the combination of scientific, technological, educational and industrial indicators, using multivariate data analysis. A variance analysis approach is then developed in order to test the existence of specific regional growth regimes. The results highlight a persistently high level of diversity of regional configurations, notably among knowledge intensive regions, but also show that national institutional settings remain of fundamental importance in shaping a number of regional configurations. A final conclusion relates to the weak correlation observed between the structural characteristics of regions and their performance over the 2003–2007 period: regional performance remains primarily shaped by national trends. Overall, the paper questions the regional dimension of these “systems”.     

Smart specialization as a strategy to develop early-stage regional innovation systems

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the role of smart specialization in catalyzing the development of early-stage regional innovation systems in less advanced regions, either by facilitating the emergence of some defining elements that were lacking or accelerating the development of others, such as: a regional knowledge base and a dynamic learning process, institutional structures, network integration mechanisms among key innovation actors, regional industrial specializations, and collective identities. The paper exemplifies this process with the case of Romania, a country where the research and innovation system is centralized at national level and regional innovation systems are in the early days. The transformations taking place in the Romanian regions within the process of implementing smart specialization, assisted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in the project “Targeted Support to Smart Specialization in Romania”, suggest a dynamic coagulation of institutional, financial, policy, and human factors that catalyzed the development of regional innovation systems in the country and introduced a novel approach to innovation policy.     

Evaluation of RTD in regional systems of innovation

This paper focuses on the evaluation of research and technical development (RTD) in regional systems of innovation (RSIs). It is argued that regional systems of innovation are distinctly different from national systems of innovation, and, thus, different approaches are called for in the evaluation of RSIs. The most relevant aspects of RSIs, from the evaluation perspective, relate to their largely tacit and context‐specific character. In this paper, the concept and characteristics of RSIs are reviewed, and the implications of these for evaluation practice are discussed. Pointers for good practice in the evaluation of RTD in RSIs are listed.     

From regional innovation systems to local innovation systems: Evidence from Italian industrial districts

The theoretical concepts of industrial district and regional innovation system though closely related, capture different aspects of regional economic development. Given the “nestedness” of a system in other systems, one regional innovation system can support several districts. However, in some cases, districts may be considered as local innovation systems with independent innovation patterns. In fact, the socio-economic characters of industrial districts can be so specific that the region's size and institutional framework may be inadequate in fully describing their innovation processes. In the case of the Italian region of Lombardy, this “autonomous” local innovation system model proliferates.     

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.     

区域创新系统的管治框架演化——来自深圳和东莞的对比实证

本文在电子企业问卷调查的基础上,对比分析深圳和东莞的区域创新机制,并进一步从管治角度构建区域创新机制差异的理论框架,在中国转型的体制背景下阐释管治的演化逻辑。结果显示,改革开放初期自上而下的管治模式相对于自下而上的管治,在各自向网络化管治模式演化的过程中,由于先发制度优势和组织能力禀赋,更能顺利的推动工业基础薄弱地区向区域创新系统的转变。最后指出,演化视角分析必须注重时间和地理的特殊性。     

SMEs and Their Peripheral Innovation Environment: Reflections from a Finnish Case

As it has now been widely argued, innovation is ever more seldom the product of isolated firms but usually requires a combination of multiple technologies, skills and competences, part of which have to be acquired from outside the boundaries of the innovating firm. As the literature on regional systems of innovation and other territorial innovation models suggests, the region is the most appropriate spatial level for investigating and understanding the nature of firms’ external knowledge acquisition in their innovation processes, as well as for identifying the critical actors and factors contributing to them. Unlike the majority of studies focusing on the innovation activities of firms at the regional level, this paper focuses not on the actual importance of different location factors, but on the perceptions of small- and medium-sized firms entrepreneurs of the quality of different factors in their regional innovation environment. By identifying differences between the perceptions of innovative and less-innovative firms, this study contributes to the literature on innovation as a regional-level phenomenon, and also tentatively puts forward some managerial and policy implications, as well as suggestions for further research.     

Embracing the future: path transformation and system reconfiguration for self-driving cars in West Sweden

ABSTRACT

The past years have witnessed a surge of academic interest into how new industrial paths are developed in regions. Transformation processes of existing regional industries have received less attention. This article focuses on radical innovation-based renewal processes of established paths and investigates how regional innovation systems are tackling challenges related to path transformation. Drawing on insights from the regional and technological innovation systems literatures, we develop an analytical framework that elucidates the relation between path transformation and system reconfiguration. The framework suggests that regional innovation system elements are created or adapted to (i) target the build-up of system functions regionally; (ii) link up to system functions in other locations, and (iii) transplant system functions from elsewhere. The analytical framework is applied to a case study of the transformation of the automotive industry in West Sweden towards self-driving cars. The empirical analysis provides support for the importance of the three types of system reconfiguration and emphasises the relevance of different types of assets. Furthermore, it highlights how actors tend to utilise previous networks and positions in global innovation systems rather than turning to the development of system functions regionally as the ‘default option’ of system reconfiguration.