Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia

What indicators do (or do not) tell us about Regional Innovation Systems

This paper analyses some of the methodologies and R&D and innovation indicators used to measure Regional Innovative Capacity in Spain for the period 1996–2000. The results suggest that the approaches examined are not sufficiently rigorous; they vary depending on the methodology and indicators employed.Therefore, we would suggest that the right balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches could produce a better evaluation of innovation system performance which would be more useful to policy makers and other stakeholders.

Evaluating European Regional Innovation Strategies

In this paper we analyse the degree of achievement of the Regional Innovation Strategy goals. This is an European Union Commission policy oriented toward the promotion of regional Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy design through the involvement of regional stakeholders. We analyse two categories of objectives: those dealing with process participation and those dealing with behavioural change. Our results show that the overall achievement of the goals is meaningful: the former have been achieved in a larger extent than the latter ones. However, other aspects such as multidisciplinary, and the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation system have not been so fruitful.

Benchmarking Innovation in the Valencian Community

Benchmarking on innovation policies allows less developed territories to adjust their learning processes along with the experiences of others. There are successful territories in Europe where innovation policies have become key to their development, but there are others where this is not the case, as in most Spanish regions. The purpose of this article is to benchmark the Valencian Innovation System, at three levels of analysis: (a) Spanish; (b) Mediterranean; and (c) European regions. Our results highlight its main strengths and weaknesses, which are indicative of the deficiencies in the Valencian industrial structure and the difficulties involved in absorbing newly qualified, highly educated people. The Valencian Community shows relative strengths in those aspects related to public funding while its weaknesses are related to private activities. This structural imbalance drives us to categorize the Valencian Innovation System as weak, unarticulated and unbalanced, which makes us question the real existence of a regional innovation system in the Valencian Community.We consider that support from the regional government should be oriented first towards the definition of some common consensus-based targets in which the main actors are involved. Then second, entrepreneurial activities should be fostered, which may link the existing industrial structure to the public research system in the region. Third, a structural change should be promoted in Valencian universities, with greater emphasis on cooperation with regional firms, and knowledge transfer to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) so as to increase their competitiveness.

Anchoring the innovation impacts of public procurement to place: The role of conversations:

Public procurement is frequently touted as a means of promoting innovation at the sub-national level, but the underlying mechanisms through which this is supposed to work are seldom articulated. In particular, while the relevance of social interaction for innovation is offered as a key rationale for the use of public procurement for innovation, there is little discussion of its corresponding spatial dimensions. This paper contributes to this debate by advancing our understanding of the spatial aspects of public procurement for innovation and thus of the scope for using public procurement to achieve regional innovation policy goals. We connect the public procurement for innovation literature with the literatures on innovation-driven regional development around the notion of ‘conversations’ to capture the spatial and social aspects of interactions relevant for public procurement for innovation. Different forms of spatial anchoring of procurement are explored, presenting different challenges and opportunities for regions. We provide illustrative examples for each type, from which suggestions are derived for promoting place-based ‘innovation-friendly’ procurement.

ROSA, ROSAE, ROSIS: modelling a regional open sectoral innovation system

Abstract The literature on territorial innovation modes has identified the development of a diverse set of innovation systems at multiple levels of analysis. However, there are certain gaps that do not allow their adaptation to the particularities of certain territories. Despite the multiple concepts related to innovation systems approach, the state of the art does not yet provide a useful analytical approach for a deep and comprehensive characterization of territories with a high sectoral and technological specialization. This paper introduces an analytical framework based on a regional open and sectoral innovation system, which is qualitatively tested in the Durango County (Spain). The aim of this paper is to introduce a subtype of innovation system that meets the requirements and needs of a located micro-territory with a high level of sectoral specialization.

Who leads research productivity growth? Guidelines for R&D policy-makers

This paper evaluates to what extent policy-makers have been able to promote the creation and consolidation of comprehensive research groups that contribute to the implementation of a successful innovation system. Malmquist productivity indices are applied in the case of the Spanish Food Technology Program, finding that a large size and a comprehensive multi-dimensional research output are the key features of the leading groups exhibiting high efficiency and productivity levels. While identifying these groups as benchmarks, we conclude that the financial grants allocated by the program, typically aimed at small-sized and partially oriented research groups, have not succeeded in reorienting them in time so as to overcome their limitations. We suggest that this methodology offers relevant conclusions to policy evaluation methods, helping policy-makers to readapt and reorient policies and their associated means, most notably resource allocation (financial schemes), to better respond to the actual needs of research groups in their search for excellence (micro-level perspective), and to adapt future policy design to the achievement of medium-long term policy objectives (meso and macro-level).

Trust builders as open Innovation intermediaries

The concept of innovation intermediaries has gained relevance in the innovation management literature due to the role they play in supporting innovation processes. This paper focuses on the concept of ‘trust builders’. These are defined as volunteers that cooperate with firms, facilitating their interaction with other stakeholders in developing innovation projects. The role of ‘trust builders’ is analyzed from the impact they have on the territory, promoting initiatives that influence and improve local competitiveness through joint activities. The research is based on a case study conducted in Durango County, Spain. It aims to explore the impact of trust builders’ activity in the increased willingness of cooperation and coopetition in the territory. Our results suggest that trust builders constitute an interesting mechanism to promote new products, processes, and technological and market opportunities through knowledge sharing.

New Product Development in Traditional Industries: Decision-Making Revised

This paper investigates whether decisions considered as common in new product development literature are also valid in a region characterized by traditional industries. The research is grounded on innovative companies in the Valencian Region (Spain). Using the statistical tool of factor analysis, we test if the groups of decisions identified by the literature can be confirmed in our empirical sample. Therewith, we aim to link the theoretical and empirical fields in the context of new product development and product innovation management.

Innovation management tools: implementing technology watch as a routine for adaptation

Innovation management (IM) is a multidisciplinary field which has been growing for the past few decades. However, the management of innovation is often considered equivalent to technology management or the management of research and development. By focusing on a set of small- and medium-sized enterprises operating in a medium-high-tech industry, the paper intends to determine the characteristics of IM tools. In particular, we address one of these tools, technology watch (TW), and define a set of generic stages to introduce the most relevant roles for its implementation. TW consists of the systematic observation, analysis and use of technological information, allowing companies to be aware of their external environment and learn from it. Through the implementation of TW processes, companies are able to assess and adapt their current technological base and the fit of their internal competences to the signals coming from the external environment.

Dynamics of Big Internet Industry Groups and Future Trends

This book applies a new analytical framework to the study of the evolution of large Internet companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and Samsung. It sheds light on the dynamics of business groups, which are approached as business ecosystems, and introduces the concept of Epigenetic Economic Dynamics (EED), which is defined as the study of the epigenetic dynamics generated as a result of the adaptation of organizations to major changes in their respective environments. The book augments the existing literature on evolutionary economic thinking with findings from epigenetics, which are proving increasingly useful in analyzing the workings of large organizations. It also details the theoretical and conceptual nature of recent work based on evolutionary economics, mainly from the perspective of generalized Darwinism, resilience and related variety, and complements the work conducted on evolutionary economics by applying the analytical framework of EED. It makes it easier to forecast future dynamics on the Internet by proving that a sizable number of big business groups are veering from their initial paths to take unprecedented new directions as a result of competition pressure, and as such is a valuable resource for postgraduates and researchers as well as those involved in economics and innovation studies.