IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurpls/v10y2002i2p153-164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional Innovation Support Systems: Recent Trends in Germany and East Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Hassink

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, one can observe a clear shift in the aims of regional policy in industrialized countries from reducing regional inequalities to developing endogenous small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and innovation in regions through regional innovation support systems. Innovation support systems are defined as a group of actively cooperating organizations that support the innovativeness of SMEs. An innovation support system consists of all agencies found in three support stages, namely the provision of general information, technological advice and joint R&D projects, between firms (of which technology-following SMEs are the main group), higher education institutes (HEIs) and public research establishments (PREs). Agencies found in these stages try to help to solve innovation problems mainly of technology-following SMEs by either giving them advice themselves or by referring them to other agencies in a further stage of support. The agencies can be mainly supra-nationally, nationally or regionally initiated. This paper aims at comparing these regional innovation support systems in Germany and East Asia, that is Japan and South Korea, both concerning the instruments used, their impact on regional economic development, their level of organizational embeddedness in regions and the ability of regions to coordinate innovation support policies. The main conclusions of the paper are that there are similarities between the regional innovation support systems found in the countries when it comes to policy instruments, but that the countries differ concerning their level of regional embeddedness and the abilities of regions to coordinate innovation support policies. The paper also tentatively concludes that in countries where regions have the ability to coordinate policies into integrative innovation support systems, the impact on regional economic development tend to be larger than in countries where these abilities are lacking, that is where dirigiste and grassroots support systems prevail. One important explanation for the different coordinating abilities lies in the different political-administrative systems found in the studied countries (centralized in South Korea versus federal in Germany). Other factors explaining differences are: a time lag of development policies between countries, differences between the history of supporting SMEs in regions, supra-national support frameworks, the commitment of the political leaders in regions, collective trust and the size of countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Hassink, 2002. "Regional Innovation Support Systems: Recent Trends in Germany and East Asia," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 153-164, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:10:y:2002:i:2:p:153-164
    DOI: 10.1080/09654310120114463
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654310120114463
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09654310120114463?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
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ash Amin, 1999. "An Institutionalist Perspective on Regional Economic Development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 365-378, June.
    2. Steven Bass, 1998. "Japanese Research Parks: National Policy and Local Development," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 391-403.
    3. Atkinson, Robert D., 1991. "Innovation policy making in a federalist system: Lessons from the states for U.S. federal innovation policy making," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 559-577, December.
    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. Antonioli,Davide & Marzucchi,Alberto & Montresor,Sandro, 2012. "Regional innovation policy and innovative behaviours. A propensity score matching evaluation," INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Working Paper Series 201205, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV).
    2. Alberto Marzucchi & Davide Antonioli & Sandro Montresor, 2015. "Industry–research co-operation within and across regional boundaries. What does innovation policy add?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 499-524, August.
    3. Davide Antonioli & Alberto Marzucchi & Sandro Montresor, 2014. "Regional Innovation Policy and Innovative Behaviour: Looking for Additional Effects," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 64-83, January.
    4. Alberto Marzucchi & Davide Antonioli & Sandro Montresor, 2012. "Research cooperation within and across regional boundaries. Does innovation policy add anything?," JRC Research Reports JRC76320, Joint Research Centre.
    5. Chang Ma & Kehu Tan & Jiangye He, 2023. "The Impact of Opening a High-Speed Railway on Urban Innovation: A Comparative Perspective of Traditional Innovation and Green Innovation," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-24, August.
    6. Chrys Gunasekara, 2006. "Reframing the Role of Universities in the Development of Regional Innovation Systems," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 101-113, January.
    7. repec:elg:eechap:14395_13 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Syed Hasan & H. Allen Klaiber & Ian Sheldon, 2020. "The impact of science parks on small- and medium-sized enterprises’ productivity distributions: the case of Taiwan and South Korea," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 135-153, January.
    9. Yunwei Li & Wenjing Long & Xiao Ning & Yumeng Zhu & Yifan Guo & Zhou Huang & Yu Hao, 2022. "How can China's sustainable development be damaged in consequence of financial misallocation? Analysis from the perspective of regional innovation capability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3649-3668, November.

    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. Robert Hassink, 2001. "Towards Regionally Embedded Innovation Support Systems in South Korea? Case Studies from Kyongbuk-Taegu and Kyonggi," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(8), pages 1373-1395, July.
    2. Chiasson, Guy & Angelstam, Per & Axelsson, Robert & Doyon, Frederik, 2019. "Towards collaborative forest planning in Canadian and Swedish hinterlands: Different institutional trajectories?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 334-345.
    3. David Doloreux & David Rangdrol & Émilie Dionne, 2010. "Francophone Minority Economic Development in Canada: Addressing Political or Economic Issues?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(2), pages 143-153, May.
    4. Piotr Nowaczyk, 2018. "The Concept Of Development Of West Pomerania'S Coastal Areas Based On The Polarizaton-Diffusion Model," Business Logistics in Modern Management, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics, Croatia, vol. 18, pages 419-435.
    5. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    6. Manfred Walser & Roland Scherer, 2012. "How to Improve the Region’s Ability to Learn: A Micro-level Model on Regional Actor's Knowledge and (Informal) Learning Processes," Chapters, in: Knut Ingar Westeren (ed.), Foundations of the Knowledge Economy, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Raquel Ortega-Argilés, 2022. "The evolution of regional entrepreneurship policies: “no one size fits all”," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(3), pages 585-610, December.
    8. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Chiara Burlina, 2021. "Institutions and the uneven geography of the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 728-752, September.
    9. Asheim, Bjorn T. & Coenen, Lars, 2005. "Knowledge bases and regional innovation systems: Comparing Nordic clusters," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1173-1190, October.
    10. Sedlacek Sabine & Kurka Bernhard & Maier Gunther, 2009. "Regional identity: a key to overcome structural weaknesses in peripheral rural regions?," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 1(4), pages 180-201, January.
    11. Joanna Tyrowicz & Joanna Nestorowicz, 2010. "Cynicism Starts Young: Age and Entrepreneurship over Transition," Working Papers 2010-02, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    12. Laura Lecluyse & Mirjam Knockaert & André Spithoven, 2019. "The contribution of science parks: a literature review and future research agenda," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 559-595, April.
    13. Bauer, Thomas K. & Breidenbach, Philipp & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2015. "“Phantom of the Opera” or “Sex and the City”? Historical amenities as sources of exogenous variation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 93-98.
    14. Álvarez, Inmaculada C. & Barbero, Javier & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Zofío, José L., 2018. "Does Institutional Quality Matter for Trade? Institutional Conditions in a Sectoral Trade Framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 72-87.
    15. Alina - Irina Popescu, 2011. "Review of Higher Education's Contribution to Regional Development in Romania," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1327, European Regional Science Association.
    16. Thomas Farole & Andres Rodriguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2007. "Social capital, rules, and institutions: A cross-country investigation," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03461998, HAL.
    17. Huasheng Zhu & Kelly Wanjing Chen & Juncheng Dai, 2016. "Beyond Apprenticeship: Knowledge Brokers and Sustainability of Apprentice-Based Clusters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-17, December.
    18. Charlie Karlsson, 2012. "Entrepreneurship, social capital, governance and regional economic development: an introduction," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Entrepreneurship, Social Capital and Governance, chapter 1, pages 1-26, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Davide Luca, 2022. "National elections, sub-national growth: the politics of Turkey’s provincial economic dynamics under AKP rule [Shift-share designs: theory and inference]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 829-851.
    20. Susan Christopherson & Jennifer Clark, 2010. "Limits to ‘The Learning Region’: What University-centered Economic Development Can (and Cannot) do to Create Knowledge-based Regional Economies," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 25(2), pages 120-130, March.

    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:taf:eurpls:v:10:y:2002:i:2:p:153-164. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEPS20 .

    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.