IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v46y2014i2p414-432.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Informal and Formal Sources of Knowledge as Drivers of Regional Innovation: Digging a Little Further into Complexity

Author

Listed:
  • Jose M Barrutia
  • Carmen Echebarria
  • Vanessa Apaolaza-Ibáñez
  • Patrick Hartmann

Abstract

We study the combined effect of formal (FSK) and informal (ISK) sources of knowledge on European regional innovation performance. Our findings show that the effect of the two sources of knowledge on innovation performance is not simple and linear. First, both sources of knowledge have an interaction effect on innovation performance (ie, the effect of FSK on regional innovation depends on the level of access to ISK in the region, and vice versa). Second, while the effect of ISK is linear (although different for each region), the effect of the FSK (which is more intensive in monetary, time, effort, and opportunity costs) has a diminishing-returns form, and achieves a saturation point at high levels of use of FSK. Our findings also show that the balanced access to both types of sources is important and that, for instance, regions with limited access to ISK should not expect miraculous effects from high levels of FSK. To the best of our knowledge, no previous research has been reported which has empirically studied the combined effect of both sources of knowledge at a European regional level.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose M Barrutia & Carmen Echebarria & Vanessa Apaolaza-Ibáñez & Patrick Hartmann, 2014. "Informal and Formal Sources of Knowledge as Drivers of Regional Innovation: Digging a Little Further into Complexity," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(2), pages 414-432, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:2:p:414-432
    DOI: 10.1068/a462
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a462
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a462?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jensen, Morten Berg & Johnson, Bjorn & Lorenz, Edward & Lundvall, Bengt Ake, 2007. "Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 680-693, June.
    2. Christoph Hauser & Gottfried Tappeiner & Janette Walde, 2007. "The Learning Region: The Impact of Social Capital and Weak Ties on Innovation," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 75-88.
    3. Weijan Shan & Gordon Walker & Bruce Kogut, 1994. "Interfirm cooperation and startup innovation in the biotechnology industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 387-394, June.
    4. Ikujiro Nonaka, 1994. "A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 14-37, February.
    5. Paul Plummer & Mike Taylor, 2001. "Theories of Local Economic Growth (Part 1): Concepts, Models, and Measurement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(2), pages 219-236, February.
    6. Rosina Moreno & Raffaele Paci & Stefano Usai, 2005. "Spatial Spillovers and Innovation Activity in European Regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(10), pages 1793-1812, October.
    7. Cooke, Philip & Gomez Uranga, Mikel & Etxebarria, Goio, 1997. "Regional innovation systems: Institutional and organisational dimensions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 475-491, December.
    8. Prais,S. J., 1995. "Productivity, Education and Training," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521556675.
    9. Buesa, Mikel & Heijs, Joost & Baumert, Thomas, 2010. "The determinants of regional innovation in Europe: A combined factorial and regression knowledge production function approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 722-735, July.
    10. Patrick Rondé & Caroline Hussler, 2005. "Innovation in Regions : What Does Really Matter?," Post-Print hal-00279142, HAL.
    11. Tom Broekel, 2012. "Collaboration Intensity and Regional Innovation Efficiency in Germany—A Conditional Efficiency Approach," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 155-179, February.
    12. Ronde, Patrick & Hussler, Caroline, 2005. "Innovation in regions: What does really matter?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1150-1172, October.
    13. Oerlemans, L.A.G. & Meeus, M.T.H. & Boekema, F.W.M., 1998. "Do networks matter for innovation? The usefulness of the network approach in analysing innovation," Other publications TiSEM b5b01e96-86f7-4fdf-95c0-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Kevin Morgan, 1997. "The Learning Region: Institutions, Innovation and Regional Renewal," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 491-503.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nieves Arranz & Carlos F. Arroyabe & Juan Carlos Fernandez de Arroyabe, 2019. "The effect of regional factors in the development of eco‐innovations in the firm," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 1406-1415, November.
    2. Elena Calvo-Gallardo & Nieves Arranz & Juan Carlos Fernandez de Arroyabe, 2022. "Contribution of the Horizon2020 Program to the Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization in Coal Regions in Transition: The Spanish Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-28, February.
    3. Carlos M. Jardon & Nilda C. Tañski & Xavier Martinez-Cobas, 2023. "Sources of knowledge for innovation capability in subsistence small businesses: a case of the wood sector in Argentina," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 70(3), pages 839-860, June.
    4. Zhang, Jingjing & Groen, Aard, 2021. "Informal and formal open activities: Innovation protection methods as antecedents and innovation outputs as consequences," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hauser, Christoph & Siller, Matthias & Schatzer, Thomas & Walde, Janette & Tappeiner, Gottfried, 2018. "Measuring regional innovation: A critical inspection of the ability of single indicators to shape technological change," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 43-55.
    2. Jose M Barrutia & Carmen Echebarria & Ainhize Gilsanz, 2011. "Social capital and innovation: an empirical analysis in the context of European regions," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1347, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Tappeiner, Gottfried & Hauser, Christoph & Walde, Janette, 2008. "Regional knowledge spillovers: Fact or artifact?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 861-874, June.
    4. Matthias Siller & Christoph Hauser & Janette Walde & Gottfried Tappeiner, 2015. "Measuring regional innovation in one dimension: More lost than gained?," Working Papers 2015-14, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    5. Matthias Siller & Christoph Hauser & Janette Walde & Gottfried Tappeiner, 2014. "The Multiple Facets of Regional Innovation," Working Papers 2014-19, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    6. Jarle Aarstad & Olav Andreas Kvitastein & Stig-Erik Jakobsen, 2019. "What Drives Enterprise Product Innovation? Assessing How Regional, National, And International Inter-Firm Collaboration Complement Or Substitute For R&D Investments," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(05), pages 1-25, June.
    7. Muhammad Nouman & Mohammad Sohail Yunis & Muhammad Atiq & Owais Mufti & Abdul Qadus, 2022. "‘The Forgotten Sector’: An Integrative Framework for Future Research on Low- and Medium-Technology Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Miguélez, Ernest & Moreno, Rosina, 2015. "Knowledge flows and the absorptive capacity of regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 833-848.
    9. Fitjar, Rune Dahl & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2013. "Firm collaboration and modes of innovation in Norway," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 128-138.
    10. Riccardo Crescenzi & Alexander Jaax, 2017. "Innovation in Russia: The Territorial Dimension," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 93(1), pages 66-88, January.
    11. Annamaria Fiore & Maria Jennifer Grisorio & Francesco Prota, 2009. "Do we really need regional innovation agencies? Some insights from the experience of an Italian region," SERIES 0025, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Nov 2009.
    12. Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2015. "Regional innovation system (in)efficiency and its determinants: an empirical evidence from Italian regions," MPRA Paper 67067, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2006. "R&D, Spillovers, Innovation Systems and the Genesis of Regional Growth in Europe," Bruges European Economic Research Papers 5, European Economic Studies Department, College of Europe.
    14. Oerlemans, Leon A. G. & Boekema, Frans W. M. & Meeus, Marius T. H., 2000. "On The Spatial Embeddedness Of Innovation Networks: An Exploration Of The Proximity Effect," ERSA conference papers ersa00p57, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Andres Rodriguez-Pose & Riccardo regstdcenzi, 2008. "Research and Development, Spillovers, Innovation Systems, and the Genesis of Regional Growth in Europe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 51-67.
    16. Rune Dahl Fitjar & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2015. "Networking, context and firm-level innovation: Cooperation through the regional filter in Norway," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1516, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2015.
    17. Cristian Barra & Roberto Zotti, 2018. "The contribution of university, private and public sector resources to Italian regional innovation system (in)efficiency," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 432-457, April.
    18. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Marco Solazzi, 2012. "A bibliometric tool to assess the regional dimension of university–industry research collaborations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 955-975, June.
    19. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2008. "Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 371-388.
    20. Reza Naghizadeh & Shaban Elahi & Manoochehr Manteghi & Sepehr Ghazinoory & Marina Ranga, 2015. "Through the magnifying glass: an analysis of regional innovation models based on co-word and meta-synthesis methods," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 2481-2505, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:2:p:414-432. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.