Regional Innovation Systems

Abstract

First introduced by Philip Cooke in 1992, the concept of regional innovation systems is a normative and descriptive approach aimed at capturing how technological development takes place within a territory. Its popularity reflects the heightened interest in the regional, that is, subnational business environment for interactive innovation processes. It has since become a central paradigm for the analysis of regional potential and the design of policies to promote knowledge-based regional development. Empirical research has produced a large number of case studies which – if designed consistently – allow us to develop typologies based on different dimensions such as business innovation and governance. However, more recent work stresses the cross-scalar nature of innovation, indicating that we must not solely focus on the regional scale. Furthermore, writings on the notion of proximity inform us that even if we take all geographic scales into account, collaborative innovation practices are at the same time situated in a matrix of techno-economic, organizational, relational, institutional, and temporal spaces in which territorial space is only one dimension. Integrating spatial and sectoral systems of innovation which intersect, for instance, in regional clusters of industry may take our understanding of regional innovation processes one step further.