In the study of innovation systems, a regional innovation system (RIS) encourages the rapid diffusion of knowledge, skills and best practice within a geographic area larger than a city, but smaller than a nation. The edge of a regional innovation system may be drawn conceptually and organizationally around the economic, social, political and institutional relationships that generate a collective learning process within a related group of technological or functional areas.
A recent study has shown that innovation output is higher in regions where both a sizable population of small firms and large firms are present. [1]
In the European context, the European Union following a regional development model (dividing European territories in administrative and statistical national subdivisions) gives great emphasis to RIS. The regional innovation systems had been favoured especially after the setting of Lisbon's strategy goals. Now regional innovation policies had been incorporated in various larger or smaller EU initiatives and policy packages and large part of the investments by the EU structural funds is devoted to the creation or enhancement of the local-regional innovation systems. [2]
Switzerland defines regional innovation systems (RIS) as "functional economic spaces - usually supracantonal and even cross-border in some cases - where networks of important actors for innovation processes, such as companies, research and education establishments, as well as public authorities". [3] The Swiss New Regional Policy (NPR) [4] influences the development of RIS since it supports the RIS governance and management, whose activities encompass services intended for start-up and SMEs: point of entry, networking platforms, cluster development and coaching.
The OECD focuses on regional innovation system as part of The Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC) [5] activities. It fosters best practices exchanges on this and regularly publishes reports on related issues (for example included in the Territorial Reviews [6] ). "Peer reviews provide analytic assessment and policy advice for regions, reviews examine the strength of the regional innovation system, the appropriateness of the policy mix for the region's needs, and the strategic use of the region's resources given global, national, regional and local factor. For countries, reviews assess the extent to which policies from different policy streams (e.g., regional development, science and technology, enterprise policy and higher education policy) are effective in building regional innovation systems and clusters for the range of region types in the country.". [7]
The RIS concept, which originated in the European academic literature, has been used as an influential analytical tool in different Latin American countries. In Medellin, Colombia, the RIS concept has been adopted to support new technological trajectories. At the center of the RIS is the regional innovation agency, Ruta N. [8]
Regional innovation agency have been created in many regions around the world to support the innovation process in their RIS. [9]
Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity realizing or redistributing value". Others have different definitions; a common element in the definitions is a focus on newness, improvement, and spread of ideas or technologies.
The knowledge economy is an economic system in which the production of goods and services is based principally on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to advancement in technical and scientific innovation. The key element of value is the greater dependence on human capital and intellectual property for the source of the innovative ideas, information and practices. Organisations are required to capitalise this "knowledge" into their production to stimulate and deepen the business development process. There is less reliance on physical input and natural resources. A knowledge-based economy relies on the crucial role of intangible assets within the organisations' settings in facilitating modern economic growth.
In business administration, absorptive capacity has been defined as "a firm's ability to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends". It is studied on individual, group, firm, and national levels. Antecedents are prior-based knowledge and communication. Studies involve a firm's innovation performance, aspiration level, and organizational learning. It has been said that in order to be innovative an organization should develop its absorptive capacity.
The National Innovation System is the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions which is key to the innovative process on the national level. According to innovation system theory, innovation and technology development are results of a complex set of relationships among actors in the system, which includes enterprises, universities and government research institutes.
New Public Management (NPM) is an approach to running public service organizations that is used in government and public service institutions and agencies, at both sub-national and national levels. The term was first introduced by academics in the UK and Australia to describe approaches that were developed during the 1980s as part of an effort to make the public service more "businesslike" and to improve its efficiency by using private sector management models.
The European Structural and Investment Funds are financial tools set up to implement the regional policy of the European Union, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy, governed by a common rulebook. They aim to reduce regional disparities in income, wealth and opportunities. Europe's poorer regions receive most of the support, but all European regions are eligible for funding under the policy's various funds and programmes. The current Regional Policy framework is set for a period of seven years, from 2021 to 2027.
Multi-level governance is a term used to describe the way power is spread vertically between many levels of government and horizontally across multiple quasi-government and non-governmental organizations and actors. This situation develops because many countries have multiple levels of government including local, regional, state, national or federal, and many other organisations with interests in policy decisions and outcomes. International governance also operates based on multi-level governance principles. Multi-level governance can be distinguished from multi-level government which is when different levels of government share or transfer responsibility amongst each other. Whereas multi-level governance analyses the relationship of different state levels and interaction with different types of actors.'
A regulatory impact analysis or regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is a document created before a new government regulation is introduced. RIAs are produced in many countries, although their scope, content, role and influence on policy making vary.
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE PhD FRSA was born in Bangor, Gwynedd and brought up in Pwllheli on the Llyn Peninsula. He is currently Assistant Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise) and the chair in entrepreneurship at the University of South Wales. He is visiting professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Turku in Finland, newspaper columnist and the creator of the Wales Fast Growth 50, an annual barometer of entrepreneurial firms in Wales.
The URBAN AND REGIONAL INNOVATION Research (URENIO) is a university lab in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. URENIO is a non-profit research organization that started its operation in 1995. URENIO is mainly involved in competitive projects from the European R&D Framework Programs (FP), the Competitiveness and Innovation Program (CIP), the territorial cooperation programs, the OECD, and the United Nations.
An entrepreneurial ecosystems or entrepreneurship ecosystems are peculiar systems of interdependent actors and relations directly or indirectly supporting the creation and growth of new ventures.
The range of processes of dissemination and harmonization resulting in development of a common European culture can be summarized under the term of Europeanisation. Europeanisation appears at both, national and regional level and is determined by different types of adaptation pressures and "mediating" institutions operating within different actors (bodies) of governance. Europeanisation emphasizes the involvement of local framework, development of more urban partnerships and encouragement of wider level of actors in multilevel territorial interaction.
The OECD Development Centre was established in 1961 as an independent platform for knowledge sharing and policy dialogue between Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries and developing economies, allowing these countries to interact on an equal footing.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. The majority of OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries. As of 2017, the OECD member countries collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP and 42.8% of global GDP at purchasing power parity. The OECD is an official United Nations observer.
Innovation districts are zones in cities where public and private actors work to attract entrepreneurs, startups, business incubators, generally with the aim of revitalizing depressed downtown areas. The first, 22@ in Barcelona, Spain, was launched in 2000; as of 2019, there are more than 80 worldwide.
Rural development is a vitally important policy area in the European Union. It works to improve aspects of the economic, environmental and social situation of the EU's rural areas. Rural regions cover 57% of the EU territory and 24% of the EU population. Together with intermediate regions they comprise 91% of the EU territory and 59% of the total EU population. Across the EU, the dimensions of the rural-urban territorial vary – from countries with an explicitly defined rural character to Member States that tend to be more urbanised.
Corporation Ruta N is a public joint venture between the mayor's office of Medellín, UNE y EPM. Founded in 2009, Ruta-N was created in order to inspire and encourage innovation in the city and create favorable conditions for business and entrepreneurship.
The triple helix model of innovation refers to a set of interactions between academia, industry and government, to foster economic and social development, as described in concepts such as the knowledge economy and knowledge society. In innovation helical framework theory, each sector is represented by a circle (helix), with overlapping showing interactions. The initial modelling has advanced from two dimensions to show more complex interactions, for example over time. The framework was first theorized by Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff in the 1990s, with the publication of “The Triple Helix, University-Industry-Government Relations: A laboratory for Knowledge-Based Economic Development”. Interactions between universities, industries and governments have given rise to new intermediary institutions, such as technology transfer offices and science parks, and Etzkowitz and Ledersdorff theorized the relationship between the three sectors and explained the emergence of these new hybrid organizations. The triple helix innovation framework has been widely adopted and as applied by policy makers has participated in the transformation of each sector.
The quadruple and quintuple innovation helix framework describes university-industry-government-public-environment interactions within a knowledge economy. In innovation helix framework theory, first developed by Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff and used in innovation economics and theories of knowledge, such as the knowledge society and the knowledge economy, each sector is represented by a circle (helix), with overlapping showing interactions. The quadruple and quintuple innovation helix framework was co-developed by Elias G. Carayannis and David F.J. Campbell, with the quadruple helix being described in 2009 and the quintuple helix in 2010. Various authors were exploring the concept of a quadruple helix extension to the triple helix model of innovation around the same time. The Carayannis and Campbell quadruple helix model incorporates the public via the concept of a 'media-based democracy', which emphasizes that when the political system (government) is developing innovation policy to develop the economy, it must adequately communicate its innovation policy with the public and civil society via the media to obtain public support for new strategies or policies. In the case of industry involved in R&D, the framework emphasizes that companies' public relations strategies have to negotiate ‘reality construction’ by the media. The quadruple and quintuple helix framework can be described in terms of the models of knowledge that it extends and by five subsystems (helices) that it incorporates; in a quintuple helix-driven model, knowledge and know-how are created and transformed, and circulate as inputs and outputs in a way that affects the natural environment. Socio-ecological interactions via the quadruple and quintuple helices can be utilized to define opportunities for the knowledge society and knowledge economy, such as innovation to address sustainable development, including climate change.
Francesco Grillo is an Italian economist and manager.
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