Regional Development Promotion: The Case of Three Nordic Innovation Agencies
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | 24th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences. Conference Proceedings. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P210-9896-2021-7 |
| Keywords | innovation; innovation agency; Nordic countries; regional development; mission-oriented policy |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The paper deals with approaches to support innovation in regions in terms of different functional models of innovation agencies. Attention is focused on national and hybrid innovation agencies that support innovation to address societal challenges in regions. Agencies with this modern approach can be found mainly in the Nordic countries, therefore, we chose innovation agencies in Sweden, Norway and Finland for our research. The aim of this paper is to identify and compare approaches to regional development support of the Nordic national innovation agencies, emphasizing the challenge-oriented side of the measures. As the main research method, three case studies are used to demonstrate the influence of these agencies on regional actors. Each case study provides information on the basic organisation of the agency and the selected programme it implements. The key to selecting the programmes was their regional dimension and an application of a mission-oriented approach. Although all these agencies are generally considered successful and inspiring for other countries, our research has shown that they partially differ in their approach to regional development. For innovation agencies in other countries, the emphasis on the mission-oriented approach can be particularly inspiring. We found differences in the regional activities, establishment of regional offices, overall responsibility of the agency, main topics of interest and approach to mission-oriented policy. |
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