Advancing regional innovation systems: What does evolutionary economic geography bring to the policy table?

Abstract

The evolutionary turn in economic geography has shed new light on historically contingent regional preconditions for innovation and economic growth, which has the potential of improving the analytical input to regional innovation system approaches. Evolutionary economic geography has renewed interest in and sharpened the conceptual lens on firms, their organizational routines and knowledge bases as well as the long-term, self-sustaining development dynamics, which may arise from their co-location in regions. At the same, it has been pointed out that an overreliance on imported evolutionary frameworks (such as Nelson and Winter's theory of the firm and their lack of an explicit social ontology) may lead to a 'theoretical relegation' of institutions and agency. It seems also that the policy agenda of evolutionary economic geography has remained largely implicit. In comparison, regional innovation system has been developed in closer interaction with policy-makers and has been used widely as a framework for the design, implementation and evaluation of regional innovation policies in a variety of countries and regions. The purpose of this article is to critically investigate what evolutionary economic geography brings to the policy table, and how this potentially can advance a regional innovation systems approach. The article specially focuses on how this may improve the capacity of policies based on a regional innovation system framework to support new path development (i.e. path renewal and path creation) to secure regional resilience.

Reconciling Perspectives on Clusters: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda

“…Finally, our keywords for institutions included insights into the impact of regimes and other structures on the development of firm capabilities and innovation strategies (Casper and Whitley 2004;Hall and Soskice 2001;Hotho 2014;Whitley 2007). We relied on various institutional approaches, from national business systems (NBS) (Whitley 1999), regional innovation systems (RIS) (Coenen et al 2017), and business ecosystems (Clarysse et al 2014) to industrial ecology (Esty and Porter 1998). We relied on various institutional approaches, from national business systems (NBS) (Whitley 1999), regional innovation systems (RIS) (Coenen et al 2017), and business ecosystems (Clarysse et al 2014) to industrial ecology (Esty and Porter 1998).…”

“…As these structures exist at regional and national hierarchies (Allen 2013), our focus was inclusive of both levels. We relied on various institutional approaches, from national business systems (NBS) (Whitley 1999), regional innovation systems (RIS) (Coenen et al 2017), and business ecosystems (Clarysse et al 2014) to industrial ecology (Esty and Porter 1998). A full overview of the keywords for the three dimensions is available in Appendix S2.…”

Elementos Para Uma Política De Apoio Ao Sistema Regional De Inovação Do Estado Do Rio De Janeiro: Uma Análise Com Base Na Abordagem Da Geografia Econômica Evolucionária

“…Mais especificamente, Coenen et al (2016) apontam diversas falhas sistêmicas estruturais, que condicionam e moldam as políticas públicas para inovação orientadas pela visão de sistema, entre os quais: i) Falha das Capacidades: falta de recursos e competências apropriadas no nível da firma e das organizações que podem limitar e/ou prevenir a geração de, acesso ao, e exploração de conhecimento; ii) Falha de Infraestrutura: falta de infraestruturas física e de conhecimento devido à larga escala, longo tempo de operação, e finalmente, baixo retorno do investimento para investidores privados; iii) Falha das Instituições "Duras" (hard): ausência, excesso ou deficiências das instituições formais, tais com leis, regulações e padrões; iv) Falha das Instituições "Leves" (soft): falta de instituições informais, tais como normas e valores sociais, cultura, espírito empreendedor, confiança e tomada de risco, que impedem a colaboração necessária à inovação; v) Falha das Redes "Fortes" (strong networks): cooperação intensiva em redes intimamente ligadas pode levar à miopia e limitação do fluxo de novas ideias; vi) Falha das Redes "Fracas" (weak networks): interações e trocas de conhecimento muito limitadas com outros atores inibem a exploração de fontes de conhecimentos complementares e processos de aprendizado interativo.…”

Innovation strategy choices in the urban economy

“…Coenen et al, 2016). 'Localisation economies', a term drawn from the work of Alfred Marshall (Marshall, 1920), describe the benefits of locating in regions that are specialised in certain industries.…”