Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
4.5
DIMENSIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF
INNOVATION SYSTEMS (ISs)
4.5.1
Geographical Innovation Systems: from National to Regional ISs
In evolutionary economics the determinants of technical change are a syn-
thesis of supply and demand factors, 11 and technical change is the result
of complex interactions among scientific, technical, economic and social
changes. Instead of being seen exclusively as a linear process, innovation
is also seen as a chain-linked process that is achieved in an interactive
development which is both internal and external to the firm (Kline and
Rosenberg 1986). Thus, various economic and non-economic factors
combine to cause change, and these factors range from firm competence
to the clustering of resources according to either geography or technology,
and from organizational features such as hierarchies, markets or net-
works, to 'development blocks' 12 and institutional infrastructures.
In this vein, the prolific literature on national innovation systems
(NIS) introduced by evolutionary economists in the late 1980s (Freeman
1987; Lundvall 1992; Nelson 1993; Nelson and Rosenberg 1993; Edquist
1997), argues that the performance of national economies cannot be ana-
lysed only in terms of the strategies and performance of firms. There are
other factors and actors that play vital roles in favouring the generation
and diffusion of knowledge, including: inter-organizational networks,
financial and legal institutions, technical agencies and science research
infrastructures, education and training systems, governance structures,
and innovation policies. Institutions broadly defined which include laws,
rules, social norms and routines, taken together shape the interactions
among different organizations, and thereby both provide incentives for
innovation and also create obstacles to innovation. Such complex sets of
relationships, feedbacks and networks between firms, between firms and
innovation-oriented organizations, and between producers and users, are
strongly influenced by spatial proximity mechanisms that favour a process
of polarization and cumulativeness. The highly uneven pattern and spread
of innovation in space suggests that innovation can be better understood
by considering sub-national units of analysis, rather than thinking of
national systems of innovation as homogeneous entities (Morgan 2004).
As Carlsson and Stankiewicz point out 'high technological density and
diversity are properties of regions rather than countries' (1991, p. 115).
Hence, the notion of a regional innovation system (RIS) has emerged
as a territorially-focussed perspective of analysis which is derived from
the broader concept of NIS. 13 A regional innovation system RIS may be
defined as 'the localised network of actors and institutions in the public and
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