Regional Innovation Development as a Feature of Competitiveness in the XXI Century

Abstract

IntroductionIn the XXI century, competition has risen to a whole new level. Currently, not only specific enterprises but also entire countries compete with one another.They compete for access to resources -human, material, and capital -for sales markets of manufactured products, for investments into the development of regional businesses, etc. This competition is global in nature, and thus, neighboring countries presenting similar peculiarities form regions that are subjects of global competition and that act on behalf of all countries that form them.The most competitive regions become leaders in the global economy. They form coalitions and initiate strong relations with investors, further strengthening their competitiveness. These regions develop dynamically and boast strong quality of life Regional Innovation Development as a Feature of Competitiveness in the XXI CenturyThe authors of this paper hypothesize that one of the most significant features of regional competitiveness in the global economy is innovation development and that through innovation application, underdeveloped regions can reduce the gap between them and leading regions and can in turn surpass leading regions. The purpose of the article is to verify this hypothesis, to determine the role and significance of innovation development in the provision of regional competitiveness and to identify ways to increase the competitiveness of underdeveloped regions through innovation application. The methodological basis of the research is comprised of a specially developed proprietary methodology for the evaluation of regional competitiveness and a modified factor analysis methodology for the determination of factors of regional economic growth using the "economic miracle" case for various regions. Through this study, the authors validate the proposed hypothesis and conclude that innovation development critically shapes regional competitiveness by determining the quality of economic growth. The proposed model for increasing regional competitiveness on the basis of innovation development presents new opportunities to increase the competitiveness of underdeveloped regions through innovation application. ABSTRACTO32, F630

Spatial Analysis of Local Competitiveness: Relationship of Economic Dynamism of Cities and Municipalities in Major Regional Metropolitan Areas in the Philippines

“…The other pillars of local competitiveness include government efficiency, infrastructure, resiliency, and innovation. These other pillars were excluded from the study, instead the preference was focused on EDi, taking into account the results of the literature review which ranks business activity on top of the hierarchy of factors influencing regional competitiveness [17]. This is also based on the fundamental concept of the global competitiveness index, which recognizes that the start to existence of competitiveness is where there is business activity producing goods and services.…”

“…Dynamic factors represent the pyramid of factors of regional competitiveness to include the basic factors, supporting factors and dynamic factors (Figure 1). Arranged hierarchically, beginning at the top of the pyramid, are dynamic factors, treated as the most active and flexible [17]. Business or economic activity is considered the core of the dynamic factors, with innovation and international integration as complementary factors.…”

“…The bottom of the pyramid is composed of basic factors that form initial peculiarities of a given region. Source: [17].…”

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“…Large companies have the financial resources and technology to invest substantial amounts in research and development and to reap the benefits of scale and sales for the broader R&D scope of activities with the possibility of restructuring the risk of these innovations (Nooteboom 1994, Annoni and Kozovska 2010). However, innovations in older enterprises are generally less influential than in younger companies (Sorenson and Stuart 2000, Zinovyeva et al 2016). In contrast, the competences of enterprises improve with age, and they can realistically generate innovations while the value of new innovations cannot be overestimated (Fine 1998, Demedts 2015.…”

Management of Regional Innovation Development

“…Increasing regional competitiveness is based on the ability to perform the tasks of innovation policy in the context of a national or regional innovation system. From the point of view of the European Commission, regional competitiveness is understood as «the ability of regions to produce goods and services that that outpace competition in international markets, and at the same time, they maintain a high and sustainable level of income in the region» [14].…”