Science parks and their contribution to regional development

Abstract

From the perspectives of certain scientific and political communities, knowledge and innovation are considered crucial factors for economic development of both nations and regions. The exploitation, transfer and use of knowledge play a decisive role in the way to build the knowledge-based economy and society. Regions are important actors within the knowledge-based economy which have to take advantages and use their potentials. Regions are very heterogeneous, differing in terms of resources (human capital, social capital, technological and financial capital) as well as with respect to their competitive ability, including local spill-over effects and other multiplier effects. To gain advantages, regions have to construct it by integrating different developmental directions, including the knowledge creating sector, the market and the government (Cooke and Leydesdorff 2006). Within the last decade several measures have been undertaken by many regions to promote the knowledge-based economy. Technopoles are assumed to have positive effects on innovation and knowledge based regional development. They are often promoted by government and based on public-private partnership (Castells and Hall 1994). Especially university-industry linkages are expected to be one of the success factors for the promotion of knowledge transfer and innovation (Trippl and Todtling 2008). This chapter analyses what drives knowledge based development in technopoles and which contribution technopoles can make to regional development. Against the background of the scientific discussion on knowledge-based regional development, five factors were defined which as a hypothesis will allow statements on positive effects of technopoles especially on the transfer of knowledge and the effects of regional embededdness. A set of examples of six European technopoles or science parks was chosen to analyse their contribution to knowledge based development related to the mentioned five factors. In addition to these examples, a newly founded university and research centre located in Austria will be discussed in detail. Based on these empirical data we will gain insights whether and in which fields technopoles contribute to knowledge-based regional development and whether the defined factors can provide useful information. The paper will start with the contribution of knowledge and innovation to regional development from a theoretical point of view (13.2). Referring to the literature and the experiences of technopoles and their effects on regional development, five variables will be defined to show the contribution of technopoles and knowledge transfer to knowledge-based regional development. Section 13.3 compares six European institutions based on the mentioned five factors. In section 13.4 the characteristics of the case study of the University and Research Centre Tulln (UFT) in Austria and its objectives are discussed. Subsequently the method of networked thinking will be used to draw a regional interdependent network to show which interdependencies between different factors exist, how the five variables contribute to regional development and how they can be visualised in this diagram. Based on this diagram indicators for a regional impact monitoring are derived. In the last section the results are summarised and conclusions are drawn. The study bases on different methodological tools. Existing studies, reports and concepts were evaluated. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted on two levels: with decision makers of the institutions and with key stakeholders of the UFT. The interviews were necessary for a better understanding of the underlying objectives and initiated activities and the existing networks of the institutions. The development of the interdependent regional networks for the UFT in section 13.4.3 has been made on the basis of this information with regard to the networked thinking approach. This method has its origin in a systemic approach based on cybernetic principles. Stafford Beer is regarded as the founder of management cybernetics (Beer 1959). In the eighties, pragmatic methods for dealing with complex systems have been developed. The applied method in this paper goes back to studies by Frederic Vester, who has seen the properties of a system as a net-worked interactive structure (Vester 1974).