IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/lucirc/2015_026.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How does multi-scalar institutional change affect localized learning processes? A case study of the med-tech sector in Southern Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • Rekers , Josephine V.

    (Department of Human Geography & CIRCLE, Lund University)

  • Grillitsch, Markus

    (CIRCLE, Lund University)

Abstract

Co-location alone is not sufficient to ensure efficient and effective interaction between economic agents. Also, institutions at multiple scales shape the behaviour of organizations and provide incentives for interaction. However, institutions as well as the impact of institutions on economic agents are not static, but rather change over time. In this paper we investigate this dynamic process: How does institutional change at different geographical scales affect localized learning processes? Using an intensive case study of the medical technology sector in Southern Sweden, we trace in detail how institutions at the supra-national, national and regional scale have changed over the past 15 years and how these have affected the opportunities for localized learning between firms and hospitals. Our case makes three contributions. First, it provides a detailed empirical example of the interdependencies between institutions at the supra-national, national and regional scales. Second, as institutions shape the behaviour of organizations, we demonstrate that institutional change introduced at the extra-regional scale can have profound consequences for the establishment of local innovation linkages – and thereby for the opportunities for localized learning. Third, this leads us to reconsider the ambitions of regional policies that aim to enhance localized learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Rekers , Josephine V. & Grillitsch, Markus, 2015. "How does multi-scalar institutional change affect localized learning processes? A case study of the med-tech sector in Southern Sweden," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/26, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wp.circle.lu.se/upload/CIRCLE/workingpapers/201526_Rekers_Grillitsch.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of 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. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), 2010. "The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12864.
    3. Bruno Amable & Ekkehard Ernst & Stefano Palombarini, 2005. "How do financial markets affect industrial relations: an institutional complementarity approach," Post-Print halshs-00310484, HAL.
    4. Edler, Jakob & Georghiou, Luke, 2007. "Public procurement and innovation--Resurrecting the demand side," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 949-963, September.
    5. von Hippel, Eric, 1976. "The dominant role of users in the scientific instrument innovation process," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 212-239, July.
    6. Asheim, Bjorn T & Isaksen, Arne, 2002. "Regional Innovation Systems: The Integration of Local 'Sticky' and Global 'Ubiquitous' Knowledge," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 77-86, January.
    7. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    8. Roel Rutten & Hans Westlund & Frans Boekema, 2010. "The Spatial Dimension of Social Capital," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 863-871, June.
    9. 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.
    10. Bjørn Asheim & Lars Coenen, 2006. "Contextualising Regional Innovation Systems in a Globalising Learning Economy: On Knowledge Bases and Institutional Frameworks," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 163-173, January.
    11. G. Hodgson, 2007. "What Are Institutions?," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 8.
    12. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "The Contingent Governance Of Teams: Analysis Of Institutional Complementarity," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 14, pages 230-249, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Mario Davide Parrilli & Khalid Nadvi & Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, 2013. "Local and Regional Development in Global Value Chains, Production Networks and Innovation Networks: A Comparative Review and the Challenges for Future Research," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 967-988, July.
    14. Edquist, Charles & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, Jon Mikel, 2012. "Public Procurement for Innovation as mission-oriented innovation policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(10), pages 1757-1769.
    15. Michael Fritsch, 2003. "Does R&D-Cooperation Behavior Differ between Regions?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 25-39.
    16. Olivier Crevoisier, 2004. "The Innovative Milieus Approach: Toward a Territorialized Understanding of the Economy?," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 80(4), pages 367-379, October.
    17. Freeman, Chris, 1995. "The 'National System of Innovation' in Historical Perspective," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 19(1), pages 5-24, February.
    18. Kathleen Thelen, 2009. "Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 471-498, September.
    19. Martin, Ron & Sunley, Peter, 2012. "Forms of emergence and the evolution of economic landscapes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 338-351.
    20. Hans Westlund, 2006. "Social Capital in the Knowledge Economy," Advances in Spatial Science, Springer, number 978-3-540-35366-9, February.
    21. Cooke, Philip, 2001. "Regional Innovation Systems, Clusters, and the Knowledge Economy," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 10(4), pages 945-974, December.
    22. Maskell, Peter & Malmberg, Anders, 1999. "Localised Learning and Industrial Competitiveness," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(2), pages 167-185, March.
    23. Anders Malmberg & Peter Maskell, 2006. "Localized Learning Revisited," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 1-18, March.
    24. Aitziber Elola & Jesús Mª Valdaliso & Santiago López, 2013. "The Competitive Position of the Basque Aeroespatial Cluster in Global Value Chains: A Historical Analysis," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 1029-1045, July.
    25. Meric S. Gertler, 2003. "Tacit knowledge and the economic geography of context, or The undefinable tacitness of being (there)," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 75-99, January.
    26. Markus Grillitsch & Franz Tödtling & Christoph Höglinger, 2015. "Variety in knowledge sourcing, geography and innovation: Evidence from the ICT sector in Austria," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(1), pages 25-43, March.
    27. Hall, Peter A. & Gingerich, Daniel W., 2009. "Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Complementarities in the Political Economy: An Empirical Analysis," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(3), pages 449-482, July.
    28. Carlsson, Bo, 2006. "Internationalization of innovation systems: A survey of the literature," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 56-67, February.
    29. Davide Consoli & Andrea Mina, 2009. "An evolutionary perspective on health innovation systems," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 297-319, April.
    30. Stefano Breschi & Francesco Lissoni, 2009. "Mobility of skilled workers and co-invention networks: an anatomy of localized knowledge flows," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 439-468, July.
    31. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    32. Markus Grillitsch, 2015. "Institutional Layers, Connectedness and Change: Implications for Economic Evolution in Regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 2099-2124, October.
    33. Meric Gertler, 2010. "Rules of the Game: The Place of Institutions in Regional Economic Change," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 1-15.
    34. Robert Hassink & Claudia Klaerding, 2012. "The End of the Learning Region as We Knew It; Towards Learning in Space," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1055-1066, June.
    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. Hassink, Robert & Gong, Huiwen, 2017. "Sketching the Contours of an Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/12, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Qin Ye, 2021. "The impact of knowledge depth and breadth on the geography of analytical industry technological networks: Evidence from China’s biotechnology industry," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 2238-2255, December.
    3. Grillitsch, Markus & Trippl, Michaela, 2016. "Innovation Policies and New Regional Growth Paths: A place-based system failure framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/26, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    4. Alhusen, Harm & Bennat, Tatjana, 2019. "Innovation modes in SMEs: Mechanisms integrating STI-processes into DUI-mode learning and the role of regional innovation policy," ifh Working Papers 21/2019, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh).
    5. Grillitsch, Markus & Martynovich, Mikhail & Dahl Fitjar, Rune & Haus-Reve, Silje, 2019. "Why bother about region-specific growth patterns and how to identify them?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/10, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    6. Grillitsch, Markus & Rekers, Josephine & Sotarauta, Markku, 2019. "Trinity of Change Agency: Connecting Agency and Structure in Studies of Regional Development," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/12, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    7. Markus Grillitsch & Josephine Rekers & Franz Tödtling, 2019. "When drivers of clusters shift scale from local towards global: What remains for regional innovation policy?," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_03, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    8. Grillitsch, Markus, 2017. "Transformation Capacity of the Innovative Entrepreneur: On the interplay between social structure and agency," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/2, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    9. Frank Crowley & Declan Jordan, 2022. "Do local start-ups and knowledge spillovers matter for firm-level R&D investment?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 1085-1102, April.

    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. Grillitsch, Markus, 2014. "Institutional Change and Economic Evolution in Regions," Papers in Innovation Studies 2014/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Markus Grillitsch, 2014. "Regional Transformation: Institutional Change and Economic Evolution in Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa14p1481, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Björn T. Asheim & Markus Grillitsch & Michaela Trippl, 2016. "Regional innovation systems: past – present – future," Chapters, in: Richard Shearmu & Christophe Carrincazeaux & David Doloreux (ed.), Handbook on the Geographies of Innovation, chapter 2, pages 45-62, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Franz Tödtling & Markus Grillitsch, 2015. "Does Combinatorial Knowledge Lead to a Better Innovation Performance of Firms?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(9), pages 1741-1758, September.
    5. Markus Grillitsch & Josephine Rekers & Franz Tödtling, 2019. "When drivers of clusters shift scale from local towards global: What remains for regional innovation policy?," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_03, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Rakas, Marija & Hain, Daniel S., 2019. "The state of innovation system research: What happens beneath the surface?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    7. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2015. "Innovation in peripheral regions: Do collaborations compensate for a lack of local knowledge spillovers?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(1), pages 299-321, January.
    8. Grillitsch, Markus & Sotarauta, Markku, 2018. "Regional Growth Paths: From Structure to Agency and Back," Papers in Innovation Studies 2018/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    9. Havas, Attila, 2016. "Recent economic theorising on innovation: Lessons for analysing social innovation," MPRA Paper 77385, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Grillitsch, Markus & Trippl, Michaela, 2016. "Innovation Policies and New Regional Growth Paths: A place-based system failure framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/26, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    11. Markus Grillitsch, 2016. "Institutions, smart specialisation dynamics and policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(1), pages 22-37, February.
    12. Markus Grillitsch & Mikhail Martynovich & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Silje Haus-Reve, 2021. "The black box of regional growth," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 425-464, July.
    13. Sebastian Fastenrath & Boris Braun, 2018. "Lost in Transition? Directions for an Economic Geography of Urban Sustainability Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    14. Rosina Moreno & Ernest Miguélez, 2012. "A Relational Approach To The Geography Of Innovation: A Typology Of Regions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 492-516, July.
    15. Hamidi, Shima & Zandiatashbar, Ahoura & Bonakdar, Ahmad, 2019. "The relationship between regional compactness and regional innovation capacity (RIC): Empirical evidence from a national study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 394-402.
    16. Fitjar, Rune Dahl & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2013. "Firm collaboration and modes of innovation in Norway," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 128-138.
    17. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2017. "Firm performance in the periphery: on the relation between firm-internal knowledge and local knowledge spillovers," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1219-1231, August.
    18. Markus Grillitsch & Bjørn T. Asheim, 2017. "Cluster policy: Renewal through the integration of institutional variety," Chapters, in: Dirk Fornahl & Robert Hassink (ed.), The Life Cycle of Clusters, chapter 4, pages 76-94, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Binz, Christian & Truffer, Bernhard, 2017. "Global Innovation Systems—A conceptual framework for innovation dynamics in transnational contexts," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1284-1298.
    20. Antonelli Cristiano & Gehringer Agnieszka, 2013. "Demand pull and technological flows within innovation systems: the intra-European evidence," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201303, University of Turin.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; institutional change; multi-scalar interdependencies; social capital; knowledge networks; innovation; regional development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:lucirc:2015_026. 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: Torben Schubert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/circlse.html .

    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.