Archives
Operationalising the concepts of industrial development centres and clusters into regional innovation policy: Comparing cluster policy practices in the case of the Hunter Valley and Finspång
Marie-Louise Eriksson
Department of Technology & Social Change (Tema), Linköping University, Sweden
Maureen McKelvey
School of Technology Management & Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Abstract
This article analyses what happens when policy-makers use and implement their policy concepts and their knowledge of regional innovation and economic development within their regional contexts. Our focus is on the policy implementation phase, especially the implications of how policy-makers and firms, in different institutional settings, interpret similar policy concepts in different ways. The regional innovation policy concept explored is the conceptual idea of Industrial Development Centres (IDCs), which constitutes an example of an innovation support organisation. This policy concept was investigated through an empirical study of two cases, namely an IDC in Finspång, Sweden and an IDC in Hunter Valley, Australia.
The results from the study showed that even though policy concepts in different regions may appear on the surface to be identical, the implementation of concepts into practise still differ in significant ways. Furthermore, the context of policy practise redefined the meanings of the abstract concepts, and thereby contributed to the different outcomes. The article outlines four dimensions across which the context influences policy practice, given that policy implementation is part of the process of regional development. Accordingly, significant differences in the policy outcome were due to deep-rooted differences in the policy-makers' interpretation of abstract explanations to their specific regional context and what kind of role policy could play in regional economic development.
This article thus contributes to the debates over industrial policy outcomes, including evaluations of the means, goals and results of innovation policy. Our argument is that the links between the operationalisation of concepts, the local context of policy practise, and the resulting policy outcomes must be explicitly analysed in regional innovation policy.
Keywords
regional innovation policy, interpretation of policy theory, policy implementation, policy practice, industrial policy outcomes, economic development
References
Alm H and McKelvey M (2000) When and why does cooperation lead to innovation? An exploration into turbulent waters. Electronic Discussion Paper No. 44 on the CRIC (Centre for Research in Innovation and Competition), Manchester, at http:\\les1.man.ac.uk\cric.
Asheim BT (1999) 'Innovation, Social Capital and Regional Clusters: on the importance of co-operation, interactive learning and localised knowledge in learning economies'. Paper: Regional Studies Association International Conference on 'Regional Potentials in an Integrating Europe', University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, September 18-21, 1999.
Bell M and Pavitt K (1992) Accumulating Technology Capability in Developing Countries', World Bank Economic Review Summer: 257-281.
Berggren C, Brulin G and Gustafsson L (1998) Från Italien till Gnosjö. Om det sociala kapitalets betydelse för livskraftiga industriella regioner (From Italy to Gnosjö: About the social capital's importance for viable industrial regions.) Nya jobb & företag. Rapport nr. 2.
Bogason P (1994) 'Ansvar, legitimitet og den multifacettered stat, in Staten og den regionale teknologipolitik', (Responsibility, legitimacy and the multifaceted state, in the State and the regional technology policy) Nord REFO 3: 9-23.
Braczyk H and Heidenreich M (1998) Regional governance structures in a globalized world, in Braczyk H, Cooke P and Heidenreich M (eds) Regional Innovation Systems: The role of governance in a globalized world. UCL Press London, pp.414-440.
Cooke P (1998) Introduction: origins of the concept, in Braczyk H, Cooke P and Heidenreich M (eds) Regional Innovation Systems: The role of governance in a globalized world. UCL Press, London, pp.2-25.
Cooke P and Morgan K (1993) The network paradigm: new departures in corporate and regional development, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 11: 543-564.
de Vet JM (1993) Globalization and regional competitiveness, STI Review 13: 89-122.
Dnr (2001) Industriella utvecklingscentra och UPA-uppdraget. (Industrial Development Centres and the Government commission), Premoria, p.892.
Edquist C and McKelvey M (eds) (2000) Systems of Innovation: A Two Volume Reference Collection, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Eriksson M-L (2001) Diffusion of Policy Ideas as an Example of Institutional Imitation: The case of Industrial Development Centre Öst, Unpublished paper. Department Technology and Social Change, Linköpings University, Sweden.
Granovetter M (1985) Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness, American Journal of Sociology 91: 481-510.
Hall PA and Soskice D (eds) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hirst P (1994) Associative Democracy. Polity Press, Cambridge.
Information paper from IUC Finspång AB (April 1999) 'Vi har en unik affärsidé i vår region' (We have a unique business idea in our region). Information paper IDC-Hunter, cluster services.
ISR 1999 (1999) Department of Industry, Science, and Resources, Australian Federal Government. Shaping Australia's Future Innovation - Framework Paper. Discussion paper for Australia's First Innovation Summit held in Canberra 10-11 February 2000.
Johannisson B (2000) Modernising the Industrial District: Rejuvenation or Managerial Colonisation? In Vatne E and Taylor M (eds) The Networked Firm in a Global World: Small Firms in new environments. Ashgate, Aldershot.
Lindblom C (1997) Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic Systems. Basic Books, New York.
Lundvall B (ed) (1992) 'Introduction', in National systems of innovation: towards a theory of innovation and interactive learning, Pinter, London, pp.1-19.
Maskell P and Malmberg A (1999) The competitiveness of firms and regions: 'ubiquitification' and the importance of localized learning, European Urban and Regional Studies 6 (1): 9-25.
Metcalfe JS (1994) Technology Systems and Technology Policy in and Evolutionary Framework, Cambridge Journal of Economics 19: 25-46.
Nyholm J, Normann L, Frelle-Petersen C, Riis M and Torstensen P (2002) Innovation Policy in the Knowledge (eds) The Globalizing Learning Economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Porter ME (1998) Clusters and the new economics of competition. Harvard Business Review 76(6): 77-90.
SCB 2000 (2000) Swedish National Bureau of Statistics. Research statistics viewed at www.scb.se/utbildning/forskning/forskning/fouforetag/foretagtab.asp 2000-07-30.
Slutrapport för uppdraget att utvärdera IUC-verksamheten (1999) (Final report for the commission to evaluate the IDC-activity), 1999-01-12, Temaplan AB and Bohlin & Strömberg AB.
SOU 2000 (2000) Regionalpolitiska utredningens slutbetänkande. (The regional policy investigation's final report) Nordstedts Tryckeri, Stockholm, p.87.
Storper M (1997) The Regional World, Territorial Development in a Global Economy, The Guildford Press, New York.
www.finspong.se /naringsliv/fakta_naringsliv.html 1999-11-22.
www.idc-hunter.org.au/business/aboutidc.html 2000-04-17.
eContent Home