Abstract
Amid growing inter-state competition, national innovation policies are increasingly seeking to promote the development of regional innovation systems to intensify innovative processes and to enhance the economic competitiveness of territories. An efficient regional innovation policy requires a territorial adaptive approach to the development of mechanisms for innovating socio-spatial systems. These mechanisms should take into account the specific features and inalienable resources of territories. Whereas regional innovation systems are becoming increasingly acknowledged in public administration as versatile, the stage of a system life cycle, which is an equally important factor, often escapes managerial attention. In this article, I analyse the innovation system of the Kaliningrad region at its inception. The Kaliningrad case is of considerable interest for a study into the patterns and characteristics of the governance of innovation systems — a management paradigm aimed to promote regional development during a change in their functioning mode. In this work, I analyse the current structure of the Kaliningrad regional innovation system, of which some elements date back to the Soviet period, paying particular attention to the subsequent change in the framework conditions. I show that a new innovation trajectory requires taking into account the economic and geographical position of the region, its level of socio-economic development and economic specialization. My findings could contribute to both improving the national policy on managing innovation processes in Russian regions and developing the concept of regional innovation systems as regards research into their life cycle stages.
Highlights
Innovative development systems seeking to ensure the socio-economic competitiveness of concrete socio-spatial systems contribute to the inhomogeneity of the world economic space increasingly frequently
The recovery of the Kaliningrad regional system of innovations was associated with the identification of new priorities and approaches to long-term regional development and the emergence of a favourable business environment; the appearance of an institutional environment for innovations and stagnating old innovators pooling their resources; the selection of a new specialisation and the creation of the earlier lacking innovation infrastructure
Successful cases of deliberate creation of territorial innovation systems [32] demonstrate that key to any innovation-oriented strategy are: a shared vision of the region’s future; the consideration of the region’s competitive advantages; a firm action plan based on a consensus among stakeholders and enjoying financial and institutional political support; an accessible mechanism/platform for involving agents into the innovation process; regular monitoring of changing interests and threats to innovative development; openness to knowledge exchange; internationalisation without critical dependence; encouragement of innovation partnerships at various levels
Summary
An efficient regional innovation policy requires a territorial adaptive approach to the development of mechanisms for innovating socio-spatial systems. These mechanisms should take into account the specific features and inalienable resources of territories. Whereas regional innovation systems are becoming increasingly acknowledged in public administration as versatile, the stage of a system life cycle, which is an important factor, often escapes managerial attention. I analyse the innovation system of the Kaliningrad region at its inception. My findings could contribute to both improving the national policy on managing innovation processes in Russian regions and developing the concept of regional innovation systems as regards research into their life cycle stages.
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