No abstract

No abstract

Introduction In a recent detailed study (1) concerning policy-relevant, theoretical approaches towards stimulating innovativeness in regions (Cooke et al, 2006), the idea that``Regional innovation systems [RISs] have played and will continue to play a strategic role in promoting the innovativeness and competitiveness of regions'' (page 16) was stressed. The authors arrived at this conclusion on the basis of a thorough examination of other well-known theoretical concepts including clusters, learning regions, competitive advantage, and the triple helix. The primary thesis of this study is that a region is a suitable platform for the mobilization of key innovation actors and that, with appropriate proinnovation support, regional advantage can be actively constructed even in less successful regions. Therefore, the authors of this approach coin the phrase`constructing regional advantage'. In a response to Bathelt's critique that the RIS approach runs the risk of underestimating the importance of institutions, negotiated and defined at the level of the nation-state (Bathelt, 2003), the authors emphasize the necessity of employing a multilevel approach to innovation and governance and that RISs are open, socially constructed, and linked to global, national, and other regional systems of innovation, within a multilevel governance perspective (Cooke, 2006). Within this context the extensive literature on systems of innovation (Edquist, 1997; Freeman, 1987; Lundvall, 1992) can be summarized as largely emphasizing that innovations are the result of the continuous interaction of firms with each other and with other knowledge-generating organizations in the system. Therefore, the main focus of the innovation system (IS) approach is the operation of the system and the complex interactions that take place among the different organizations and institutions in the system.

The paper seeks to develop a comparative analysis of approaches to innovation support in three self-governing regions of the Czech Republic. Its analytical section presents an in-depth analysis of the development of innovation policies in three regions: the capital city of Prague, South Moravia and the old industrial region of Moravia-Silesia. Key dimensions of regional innovation strategy in each of the three regions are closely scrutinized and critically examined, within the context of state-of-the-art European approaches to innovation policy. Profound differences, both in approaches to innovation policy design and in the results so far achieved, have been found between the studied regions, reflecting differences in both structural and soft factors in the regions in question. Rapid progress, in terms of innovation strategy implementation, is evident in a region where strong knowledge creation capacity (in both the academic and the business spheres) exists in harmony with professional and enthusiastic key personnel in intermediary institutions as well as steady political support from regional decision-makers. The authors believe that some of their observations will have relevance for innovation policy design and implementation in other Czech regions and in other regions of the European Union’s new member states.

No abstract