Regional Innovation Systems and Regional Competitiveness

Abstract

It is well known that the European Union is anxious to close the competitiveness gap with Japan and the USA (EC, 1994). A major part in the disparity between European competitiveness and that elsewhere concerns perceived innovation deficits (EC, 1995). These two are considered also to be of fundamental importance to the improvement of social cohesion since, it is presumed, better economic performance is associated with improved prospects for employment (EC, 1996). The question of what kinds of innovation improve prospects for both competitiveness and cohesion is an important one (Edquist, 1997; MacIntosh and Francis, 1997). A problem in the past, however, has been that growth, competitiveness and employment gains have tended to be georaphically overconcentrated. This leads to the kinds of agglomeration diseconomies suffered by cities like Tokyo, prompting attempts to decentralize growth opportunities to other regions. But when this has been stimulated by attempts to decentralize science and technology infrastructures, as in Japan and France, the results have often been disappointing.