Advanced Introduction to Regional Innovation Systems

by Bjørn T. Asheim, Arne Isaksen, Michaela Trippl

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Over the past 25 years, the regional innovation system (RIS) approach has become a powerful framework for explaining the uneven geographical distribution of innovation, as well as for developing policies geared towards boosting the innovation capability of regional economies. This Advanced Introduction provides a critical review and discussion of research on RIS to answer a set of core questions covering the origins of the concept and its theoretical underpinnings, conceptual advances, empirical applications in different spatial contexts, the policy relevance of RIS and the challenges for future scholarly work. Key features include: - a comprehensive introduction to the RIS approach and its development - a critical review of the development of research on RIS - an analysis of empirical varieties of RIS - in-depth discussion linking RIS to other important concepts in studies of regional economic development, including industrial districts, regional clusters, knowledge bases and regional industrial path development. Ideal as an introductory textbook at both bachelor and master levels in economic geography, regional economic development and innovation studies, this concise Advanced Introduction will be a vital tool for understanding regional innovation studies.

160 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2019

About the author

Professor Bjørn Terje Asheim has since 2001 the chair in economic geography at the Department of Social and Economic Geography, University of Lund, Sweden, and is co-founder and deputy director of the new Centre of Excellence in innovation system research at Lund University called CIRCLE (Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy) from 2004. He is also part time professor at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway, since 2001. He was previously full professor in human geography at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo (1993-99) and at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo (1999-2001). He has also for many years been associated with the Research Council funded STEP-group (Studies in technology, innovation and economic policy) in Oslo as a part time senior researcher and scientific advisor (1994-2001). He has been head of the Department of Human Geography (1989-1994), and has had positions in national and international professional committees within economic and human geography, e.g. as the vice-chair in the International Geographical Union Study Group on Local Development. He was a member of the steering committee of the research programme “Enterprise Development 2000” in the Norwegian Research Council, and is now member of the steering committee for the new programme on “Value Creation 2010”. He is member of several program committees at VINNOVA (Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems), one of them being the program committee on learning and sustainable working life. He has also been member of the executive committee of the Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo (1993-2001). He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for European Studies on Territorial Development, University of Durham, UK, and of the international advisory committee for the Canadian Innovation Systems Research Network and MCRI Clusters project. He is Editor of Economic Geography and Regional Studies, and member of the editorial board of several European scientific journals including European Planning Studies and Journal of Economic Geography. He has served as an international expert for UNCTAD, OECD (mission to Scottish Enterprise in 2002) and EU/DG XVI and Research (rapporteur in Expert Group on ‘Creating Regional Advantage 2004-2005).

Professor Asheim is trained as both a business economist (MSc, The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen) and a human geographer (PhD, University of Lund, Sweden). He is well-known internationally for his research in the areas of economic and industrial geography, where his main research specialisations include: Comparative analyses of industrial districts and regional clusters; SMEs and innovation policy; technological change, globalisation and endogenous regional development; regional innovation systems and learning regions. He was coordinator of a EU/TSER project on “SME Policy and the Regional Dimension of Innovation” (2000), and ongoing research includes a European Science Foundation (ESF)/Swedish Research Council project on ‘Technology, talent and tolerance’, which he also coordinates, with participation from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, UK, Germany and the Netherlands; and CIRCLE projects on comparing regional innovation systems in Canada and the Nordic countries. He is also participating in two biotech projects; one in the Øresund region and one comparative European funded by European Science Foundation/Swedish Research Council, with participation from Sweden, Finland, UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and he was in charge of a newly completed Nordic comparative project on SMEs and regional innovation systems. He has also been involved in projects for the Norwegian Research Council on globalisation, where he initiated and was the director of a large interdiscipl

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a dense but necessary short book summarizing the emergence, key  principles, value, criticism and continued contributions of Regional  Innovation System theory on economic prosperity policy, despite the  short comings in its implementation. I will re-read this to prepare an outline and recommend through work.