Increasing innovativeness of SMEs in peripheral areas through international networks?: the case of Southern Italy

Strengthening innovation capacity of European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by means of their participation in the Sixth (FP6-SME) and Seventh (FP7-SME) Framework Programmes was an important objective of the European Union policies. Since SMEs form the backbone of the Italian economy, their strong presence in an international network such as the one fostered by the European Union represent a great opportunity, particularly for firms located in southern Italy -the marginal macro-area of the country in terms of innovation- to increase their competitiveness. Based on the major literature on topics such as knowledge exchange, innovation networks and disparities, and on descriptive statistics and a cluster analysis in a dynamic perspective, our study aimed to assess the actual intra-regional, extra-regional and transnational links established by the Italian SMEs and public research establishments (PREs). In a next step we aim at assessing if knowledge flows fostered by the FP6-SME and FP7-SME were mainly concentrated in the traditionally winning macro-regional areas (North and Centre) or led to more widespread benefits in favour of SMEs located in the marginal South. The findings of our study revealed a very limited number of connections -with a related weak knowledge exchange- involving the southern regions, implying a reinforcement of innovation activities in the traditionally most dynamic industrial areas of the country

Guest Editorial: Creative industries at the intersection between local agglomeration, national regulation, and global networks

During the last decades, economic geogra- phers have become increasingly interested in creative industries, creative economy, creative cities, as well as the creative class. In addition to this increasing academic interest, testified by several recent special issues in economic geog- raphy journals (see e.g., Regional Studies Vol. 49, Issue 3), policy makers at various spatial levels (urban, regional, national, cross-border, as well as supranational) try to find ways how to foster the development of creative industries

Moving beyond Anglo-American economic geography

[EN] Over the last fifteen years, we have been observing an increasing fragmentation of economic geography, concerning both schools of thought, perspectives, paradigms, themes and the educational background of researchers. The poly-vocal character of economic geography includes a variety of language areas, a phenomenon so far unknown to a large part of Anglo-American economic geographers. Particularly in the literature about theories, perspectives and paradigms, the non-English speaking world is largely ignored as a basis for debate. Even worse, leading scholars in the field increasingly use the term Anglo-American economic geography to refer to the whole field, although they describe trends and theories in both general and authoritative terms. The aim of this paper is to move beyond Anglo-American economic geography by introducing and reviewing economic geography literature in some other main languages, namely Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. 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From the old path of shipbuilding onto the new path of offshore wind energy? The case of northern Germany

Wind energy-related employment has been surging recently in Germany: it rose from 9,200 in 1997 to 90,000 in 2007 and is estimated to be 112,000 in 2020. The industry particularly emerged in coastal, northern Germany. Recently big hopes are particularly set on the offshore wind energy industry. Two recently discussed evolutionary concepts explain the emergence of new industries, such as wind energy, in space in different ways: the windows of locational opportunity concept stresses the locational freedom in the earliest stages of industrial development, whereas path creation emphasises the role of existing industrial development paths, such as shipbuilding, from which new paths, such as wind energy, emerge. The paper aims at analysing whether the new path of offshore wind energy emerged out of existing paths, mainly shipbuilding, in the five states of coastal Germany. It concludes that shipbuilding only indirectly affected the emergence of the new development path of offshore the wind energy industry in northern Germany.

On the implications of knowledge bases for regional innovation policies in Germany

Regional innovation policies have been criticised for being too standardised, one-size-fits-all and place-neutral in character. Embedded in these debates, this paper has two aims: first, to analyse whether industries with different knowledge bases in regions in Germany have different needs for regional innovation policies, and secondly, to investigate whether knowledge bases can contribute to the fine-tuning of regional innovation policies in particular and to a modern, tailor-made, place-based regional innovation policy in general. It concludes that although needs differ due to differences in knowledge bases, those bases are useful only to a limited extent in fine-tuning regional innovation policies

Strategic coupling and institutional innovation in times of upheavals: the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang, China

For regions that are deeply integrated into the global economy, the question of how to remain competitive and resilient in times of uncertainty is a key concern. While strategic coupling is a useful concept for understanding local-global economic dynamics, the idea that a region can simultaneously couple into multiple production networks organised at different spatial scales and that regional actors can increase their autonomy by creatively combining different coupling scenarios has been little explored. This paper explores how regional institutional innovations can facilitate such multiple couplings. We focus on the industrial chain chief model in China’s Zhejiang province, which emerged against the backdrop of the U.S.-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that this institutional innovation offers a different way of thinking for regions that have long been exposed to the influence of globalisation, and that it increases the agency of local actors in global production networks

Smart Specialisation strategies on the periphery : a data-triangulation approach to governance issues and practices

In spite of our current understanding of Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) design and implementation, an understanding of interrelated governance practices aimed at addressing S3 governance issues is lacking. Applying a data-triangulation approach to a large peripheral Finnish region (Lapland), the analysis suggests that S3 implementation faces two key challenges: first, the development of stakeholder networks to support diversified specialization; and second, the lack of entrepreneurial discovery activity and associated differentiation of specialization. Policy solutions aimed at successful S3 implementation could focus on more targeted stakeholder engagement to mobilize resources for further diversified specialization.Peer reviewe

Rethinking the role of local knowledge networks in territorial innovation models

Traditionally, territorial innovation models (Moulaert and Sekia Citation2003), such as clusters, industrial districts, and regional innovation systems, are characterised by a geographic concentration of competences and knowledge as well as by the spatial diffusion of competences and knowledge (Saxenian Citation1994; Sorenson and Stuart Citation2001; Tallman et al. Citation2004; Marshall Citation1920). However, competences and knowledge are not ubiquitous and available to all organisations located within such geographic concentrations. Knowledge, for instance, rather diffuses through internal and external knowledge networks (Giuliani and Bell Citation2005; Giuliani Citation2013; Fitjar and Rodríguez-Pose Citation2017). Consequently, it has been recognised for a long time that a comprehensive understanding of the working and success of territorial innovation systems is only possible when it is based on a framework centred on these systems’ internal and external knowledge networks (Giuliani Citation2005; Glückler Citation2007). Inspired by this idea, a rich stream of research has emerged that seeks to generate insights into the emergence, working, and structures of such networks. For instance, works in this stream analyse factors explaining the emergence and evolution over time of internal knowledge network relations (Cassi and Plunket Citation2015; Menzel, Feldman, and Broekel Citation2017; Niosi and Banik Citation2005; Plum and Hassink Citation2011; Ter Wal Citation2014), the embeddedness of clusters (and their internal networks) into inter-regional and global knowledge linkages (see many contributions in the special issue by Scherngell (Citation2013); Broekel, Fornahl, and Morrison Citation2015), and the role-specific organisations play in the establishment of such external linkages (Graf Citation2011; Morrison Citation2008). This special issue contributes to this general debate and aims to rethink the role of local knowledge networks in territorial innovation models unveiling also new research opportunities. It partly consists of papers presented at two international conferences on ‘Rethinking Clusters’Footnote1 in Florence in 2018 and in Padua, in 2019.publishedVersio

Exploring regional innovation policies and regional industrial transformation from a coevolutionary perspective : the case of Małopolska, Poland

This article aims to explain the role of regional innovation policies in regional industrial transformation (RIT) from a coevolutionary perspective. The empirical basis is the case study of Małopolska, a Polish region undergoing an industrial transformation in parallel with the launch and development of its innovation policies after the EU accession in 2004. To accomplish its purpose, our research extends the common coevolutionary theoretical framework with interaction mechanisms (IMs), that is, the outcome-oriented processes underlying policy-industry mutual influences, and thus explaining their coevolution. IMs allow us to better understand the reciprocal roles of policy and industry, and the major paths in industrial development and policy approach. The role of innovation policy in the Małopolska RIT can be described as predominantly accommodating and complementing industrial change with some level of proactive promotion of new industrial opportunities. Moreover, we observe reciprocal relationships with regional industry, rather than the unidirectional influence of this policy. This dynamic interaction enabled the evolution of policy to balance the exploitative and explorative approaches to industrial development