Regional clusters of innovative activity in Europe: Are social capital and geographical proximity the key determinants?

Finding proper policy instruments to promote productivity growth features prominently on the Lisbon agenda and is central in many national as well as European policy debates. In view of the increased mobility of high-skilled workers in Europe, ongoing globalization and increased interregional and international co-operation, location patterns of innovative activity may be subject to drastic changes. A proper understanding of location patterns of innovative outputs can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of national and European innovation policies. Building on the literature on the knowledge production function the aim of this paper is to explain the observed differences in the production of innovative output across European regions. Our main research question is whether geographical proximity and social capital are important vehicles of knowledge transmission for the production of innovative output in Europe. Several other variables are used to control for structural differences across European regions. We find support for the hypothesis that both social capital and geographical proximity are important factors in explaining the differences in the production of innovative output across European regions

The Governance of Global Innovation Systems: Putting Knowledge in Context

Technological innovation increasingly depends on multiscalar actor networks and institutions. However, the developers of many conceptual frameworks explaining innovation success have paid only limited attention to this new reality, due to their focus on regions and countries as agents that shape innovation governance and as containers that provide institutional conditions for innovation success. In particular, innovation systems literature has been criticized in this respect. In the present chapter, we refer to the recently formulated Global Innovation Systems approach, which enables researchers to capture the emergence of system resources across spatial scales. With this framework, we emphasize that beyond the focus on knowledge generation processes, a better understanding of valuation processes is necessary to guide governance structures for generating new technologies and products. This is particularly true for sectors that are oriented towards confronting grand challenges, such as cleantech industries

Combinatorial Knowledge Bases: An Integrative and Dynamic Approach to Innovation Studies.

The aims of this article are (1) to critically review the theoretical arguments and contribution of the knowledge base approach to economic geography and innovation studies, and the value added and limitations of applying it in empirical studies as reported about in the extant literatures; (2) to propose a new interpretation of the knowledge base approach by integrating it into a larger analytical framework for innovation studies that integrates individual, organizational, and contextual aspects, and to discuss the possible advances that come from using it in economic geography studies. The article dismisses the widespread taxonomical application of knowledge base conceptualizations for classification of firms, industries, and economies into fixed categories based on their dominant knowledge base characteristics. Rather it argues that the knowledge base characteristics vary not only between firms and industries but also over time and through innovation trajectories in firms and industries. The new interpretation implies that the knowledge base characteristics are defined not only by individual-level modes and rationales for knowledge creation and application and by their related spatial implications but also by managerial\u2013organizational aspects with regard to coordination and exploitation of such knowledge dynamics. The integration of literatures from different disciplinary strands, now unified under the umbrella of a reinterpreted knowledge base approach, advances the explanatory value of the knowledge base approach in economic geography and innovation studies as well as related disciplines

Regional state innovation in peripheral regions: enabling Lapland’s green policies

How do sparsely populated regions innovate in green policies? What enables or limits such innovation? The green policy literature often focuses on core regions, while territorial innovation models have long ignored regional state innovation. In this article we examine the drivers of public sector innovation in green policies in peripheral regions, often considered unequipped. The data come from the case study of Finnish Lapland's Smart Specialisation Strategy in relation to promoting a forest-based bioeconomy. In a context where climate change has become a major global challenge, and sustainable development an additional responsibility for local and regional governments, this article contributes to understanding the rationales for innovation in green policies from a regional perspective. Drawing from institutional economic geography, we argue that top-down approaches (Smart Specialisation) combined with scale and place-specificity (personal connections, environmental fragility, political will and natural resources endowments) play an important role in driving the governments of sparsely populated regions to innovate when translating and implementing green policies.Centre for Research on Sustainable Societal Transformation///SwedenKarlstad University///SwedenUniversidad de Costa Rica/[code 721-C0-240]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Económicas (IICE)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Económicas::Escuela de Administración Públic