Typologies of Innovation Based on Statistical Analysis for European and Spanish Regions

Abstract

This paper highlights the role of typologies for the analysis and policy-making related to regional innovation systems (RIS), explains the two main ways to develop RIS typologies (based on case studies and on statistical analysis) and makes an inventory of the existing typologies. Then it shows the main findings of a recent research done by the authors to obtain an innovation typology for the EU-25 regions and a brand new typology for the Spanish regions, as well as the position of Catalonia in those typologies and with regard to the other advanced Spanish regions. Finally, the paper explores the consequences of elaborating typologies based on statistical analysis with data coming from sources such as Eurostat, which do not provide information about key aspects of a RIS, such as the cooperation among regional agents, the regional governments' support, the regions' openness and so on. The main conclusion is that, even though not considering variables related to those key issues, the typologies obtained with available data are quite stable and would not change very much by incorporating variables that act as proxies for the missing aspects of a RIS.

Measuring the expected synergy in Spanish regional and national systems of innovation

“…However, Andalusia would be positioned at the bottom, after the Balearic Island, Extremadura, Castille-La Mancha, and Murcia. From another perspective, Navarro and Gibaja (2012) and Alberdi Pons et al (2014) analyze the types of regional innovation systems in Spain. According to these authors, the Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia, and the Community of Madrid would work as cohesive innovation systems, while the Canary and Balearic Islands, Andalusia, both Castilles, Asturias, Galicia, Murcia, Extremadura, and Cantabria are considered as fragmented RIS.…”

“…We propose to measure synergy in terms of redundancy using an indicator developed in the Triple-Helix context (Leydesdorff 2003). We elaborate this approach for the case of Spain (Buesa et al 2006;Navarro and Gibaja 2012;ZabalaIturriagagoitia et al 2007).…”