Management of Resources and Lessons Learned

The management of resources considers all resources from an ecosystem perspective. Regions try to promote their development as innovation leader in three key ways that is first analyzing the status quo, second deciding on a strategy, and third implementing the chosen strategy. Most of the time, regions bite off more strategic objectives than they can chew, and implementation suffers. Many resource control knobs need to be turned simultaneously to be successful, so leaders have to set priorities and invest political energy in often-unpopular areas. The most important task is finding the balance between important ingredients like human capital, financial capital, and infrastructure investments. To make the discussion independent from individual and institutional interests, the chapter focuses on two key dimensions of variation across resources: flexibility and importance. The energy to change the system or its dynamics is limited. Leaders can decide where to start and how much energy to invest in which resources are based on the region’s resource flexibility and importance.