Regional Innovation Support Systems and Technopoles - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 60

and threats of the regional economy and firms' production environment and on the
national and supranational institutional framework. Only if the establishment of
technopoles are based on these kind of studies, they are able to focus both on the
demand for technologies among local firms and on niches in the regional pro-
duction structure. In this way the development of supply oriented technopoles
based on the linear model of innovation can be avoided. Therefore, this Chapter
strongly endorses the argument for a differentiated regional innovation policy put
forward by Tödtling and Trippl ( 2005 ). They (2005, 1203) state that ''there is no
''ideal model'' for innovation policy as innovation activities differ strongly
between central, peripheral and old industrial areas''. Careful design of innovation
support systems guarantees a good fit between the development stage of techno-
poles and the innovation support system in which they are embedded. Since each
country is at a different development stage, technopoles will accordingly be at
different positions in their policy life cycle: at the end of their life cycle in Japan
and Germany, at earlier stages in emerging economies. Technopoles in indus-
trialised countries, therefore, need to be embedded in other regional innovation
support systems than technopoles in emerging economies.
In addition to its role of boosting technology transfer and networking in the
region, there are two other advantages of differentiated, coherent regional inno-
vation strategies. First, over-ambitious technopole planning focused on a too broad
range of technologies can be avoided with the help of regional innovation strat-
egies. Second, regional innovation strategies help to place technopoles in the
proper regional innovation policy context and by doing that they help to co-
ordinate all innovation-oriented measures relevant to the region, which might be
devised both at local, regional, national and supranational level. This will help to
avoid overlap and duplication of policy measures and thus to foster transparency
and efficiency of the innovation support system. Moreover, to develop technopoles
and to reap benefits from them for the regional economy is a long-term process,
certainly longer than the political election cycle. Carefully devised regional
innovation support systems can help regions to yield benefits of technopoles
sooner than without them.
All in all, regional innovation support systems develop in an evolutionary
manner and they can become particularly useful in supporting technopoles if they
develop from a dirigiste to a network kind of character. The development of
technopoles can be seriously harmed, if there are mismatches between the
developmental stage of technopoles and the broader regional innovation support
system in which they are embedded.
References
Amin, A. (1999). An institutional perspective on regional economic development. International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23, 365-378.
Annerstedt, J. (2006). Science parks and high-tech clustering. In P. Bianchi & S. Labory (Eds.),
International handbook of industrial policy (pp. 279-297). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.