IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jtecht/v27y2002i1p15-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

SMEs in Regional Innovation Systems and the Role of Innovation Support--The Case of Upper Austria

Author

Listed:
  • Todtling, Franz
  • Kaufmann, Alexander

Abstract

In the past large firms were regarded as the main driving forces for innovation, but, more recently, the interest has shifted to SMEs as well as networks of firms. It has been recognized that SMEs innovate in a specific way and that they face size-specific barriers. To be able to rely on innovation partners and to be involved in regional or national innovation systems seems to be of critical importance for SMEs. This paper presents the empirical results of a firm survey in Upper Austria, a region with a long industrial tradition in Austria, investigating the extent to which SMEs are actually engaged in innovation networks and the role of public innovation support in this context. The findings show that SMEs which have received innovation support are more successful innovators than those which have not, and that innovation cooperations are rather rare. Most external relations are with other firms and within the region, very few with knowledge providers from science and technology. At present, innovation support instruments do not sufficiently target the deficits of non-innovative SMEs and the problems in linking up with innovation networks and broadening firms' relations beyond the region. Copyright 2002 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Suggested Citation

  • Todtling, Franz & Kaufmann, Alexander, 2002. "SMEs in Regional Innovation Systems and the Role of Innovation Support--The Case of Upper Austria," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 15-26, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jtecht:v:27:y:2002:i:1:p:15-26
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journals.kluweronline.com/issn/0892-9912/contents
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Höglinger, Christoph & Sinozic, Tanja & Tödtling, Franz, 2012. "Emergence, growth and transformation in local clusters - Environmental industries in the region of Upper Austria," SRE-Discussion Papers 2012/07, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Anna‐Maria Kindt & Matthias Geissler & Kilian Bühling, 2022. "Be my (little) partner?!—Universities' role in regional innovation systems when large firms are rare," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(5), pages 1274-1295, November.
    3. Palaskas, Theodosios & Tsampra, Maria, 2003. "Η Επιχειρηματική Ανταγωνιστικότητα Στην Οικονομία Της Γνώσης: Προσδιοριστικοί Παράγοντες Της Καινοτομικότητας Των Μικρομεσαίων Επιχειρήσεων [Entrepreneurial competitiveness in the knowledge economy," MPRA Paper 33561, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ron Boschma & Anne L. J. ter Wal, 2007. "Knowledge Networks and Innovative Performance in an Industrial District: The Case of a Footwear District in the South of Italy," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 177-199.
    5. Klerkx, Laurens & Leeuwis, Cees, 2008. "Matching demand and supply in the agricultural knowledge infrastructure: Experiences with innovation intermediaries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 260-276, June.
    6. Muscio, Alessandro & Quaglione, Davide & Scarpinato, Michele, 2012. "The effects of universities' proximity to industrial districts on university–industry collaboration," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 639-650.
    7. T. Theeranattapong & D. Pickernell & C. Simms, 2021. "Systematic literature review paper: the regional innovation system-university-science park nexus," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 2017-2050, December.
    8. Matthies, Eike & Thomä, Jörg & Bizer, Kilian, 2022. "A hidden source of innovation? Revisiting the impact of initial vocational training on technological innovation," ifh Working Papers 33/2022, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh), revised 2022.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:jtecht:v:27:y:2002:i:1:p:15-26. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.