The study of regional growth paths is a key theme in economic geography and of elemental interest for policy makers concerned with regional development. Evolutionary theory explains the path-dependent nature of regional development, and points to its open-ended nature. This paper addresses the interplay between path-dependent, structural forces and the construction and utilization of opportunities through agentic processes. Extending to the evolutionary framework, it is argued that not only history but also perceived future opportunities influence agentic processes in the present and thus shape regional growth paths. Building on recent work about foresightful, strategic and distributed agency, this paper identifies three forms of agency, Schumpeterian innovative entrepreneurship, institutional entrepreneurship and place leadership, that call for and necessitate each other in the process of shaping regional growth paths. It is argued that such a holistic view is essential to understand regional development processes and in particular structural change as manifested in economic diversification and new industrial path development.
In the last decade, the Finnish economy has shown an unprecedented recovery, after being hit by a deep crisis in the early 1990s. The paper views and interprets this successful transformation process based on ICT from an evolutionary perspective. Although the rapid pace of the restructuring of the Finnish economy suggests a break with the past, this remarkable recovery was firmly rooted in its economic history. In addition, Finnish public policy played its role in turning Finland into a knowledge economy. Although a master plan for the Finnish economy was lacking, many policies worked out quite well together over an extended period. Building on education, research and technology policy initiatives taken in the 1970s and 1980s, the deep economic crisis in the early 1990s paved the way for new policy directions, with a focus on network-facilitating innovation policies.
In this evaluation report Vinnova (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) presents the first evaluation of the initiatives in the fourth announcement of the Vinnvaxt-programme. The initiatives were selected through a call in two steps; first a planning phase where eleven applications were approved and a second phase where the winners were announced. In May 2013 the programme council and the assessment panel (10 experts), plus officials and experts from Vinnova, selected the three Vinnvaxt winners; Geo Life Region, Smart Housing Smaland and The Paper Province 2.0.
The objective of the Vinnvaxt-programme is to promote sustainable growth based on international competitiveness in regions. This is done by developing regional innovation system´s functionality, dynamics and efficiency to an international level. According to the evaluation strategy the initiatives are evaluated every third year. This midterm evaluation had both a summative and a formative/learning approach focusing on achieved results and strategic issues related to developing the initiatives further. The focus for the evaluation was the quality of implemented research and innovation/commercialisation strategies and results from an international comparison perspective. Other evaluation aspects was organisational and leadership issues as well as outcome and impact of the initiatives in terms of mobilising key actors and influence on the regional (and national) innovation systems. The evaluation panel also looked at the conditions established for the sustainability of the initiative after the financing through the Vinnvaxt-programme.
The evaluation has been carried out through a group of international specialists from university and industry, both in cluster development and regional innovation systems and in the specific knowledge area for each initiative.
This report presents the evaluation of the following initiatives appointed as winners 2013:
• Geo Life Region
• Smart Housing Smaland
• The Paper Province 2.0
After an introduction to the evaluation and the triple helix model, there will be a chapter for each of the three initiatives, one chapter about the wave of new technologies that will impact traditional manufacturing sectors (Smart Manufacturing), including most of the Vinnvaxt-initiatives and a chapter with concluding remarks at the end.
Technological change, an aging work force and a global economic downturn are posing enormous challenges to OECD regions. While some regions are equipped to confront and handle these changes, others...
It is always easier to find out the elements of success and/or failure in retrospect than to find new development paths for the future and new modes of action in the middle of uncertain and open-ended situations. True leadership is becoming more and more important and hence there seems to be a need to direct attention also towards studying power and competences needed in promotion of economic development of regions. When aiming to bring human agency back to regional development studies, one way to do it is to ask how people engaged in promotion of regional development actually influence complex processes and networks, how they influence other actors and what kind of power they have. It might also provide us with additional analytical leverage if we understood better the consequences of the choices made and the actions taken by powerful individuals and core coalitions formed by them. The research questions discussed here are: a) what kind of sources of power are used by regional development officers; and b) how regional development officers aim to influence the course of events? The empirical research is based on data gathered a)through 41 interviews of Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of economic development in city governments, technology centres, regional development agencies, and ministries and other national bodies,and b) through internet survey of development officers at local, regional and national levels (531 respondents, response rate 51.8 % ). The survey was designed to solicit information about power, influence tactics and competences in the context of regional development. In addition various bottlenecks in the daily workwere probed. The empirical analysis shows, for example, how interpretive power and network power are more important for regional development officers than institutional and resource power, and how indirect influence tactics surpass the direct ones.
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