Technology Transfer and Innovation in the Baltic Sea Region — a Cross-Border Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, new interactions across national borders have become possible in Europe – not least in connection to the EU integration process and the reorientation of Central and Eastern Europe towards the Western world. The Baltic Sea Region is situated amidst both these metaprocesses, and with regard to the impressive variety of new cross-border interactions that have developed in this macro-region since the late 1980s, it is not far-fetched to suggest that also the important processes of technological change and innovation are likely to be shaped by and to shape cross-border relationships in the Baltic Sea Region. The dramatically differing histories and experiences of different parts of the region – notably East and West – appear to offer peculiar difficulties as well as unusual opportunities in the context of cross-border interactions involving technology transfer and innovation among the Baltic Sea countries. In contrast to the dominant directions of research on innovation during recent years, which has focused very much on national and sub-national perspectives, the purpose of this chapter is therefore to explore the issue of technology transfer and innovation in the Baltic Sea Region from a cross-border perspective.