Markku Sotarauta

The Impact of Related Variety on Regional Employment Growth in Finland 1993--2006: High-Tech versus Medium/Low-Tech

This paper investigates the impact of related variety on regional employment growth in Finland between 1993 and 2006 by means of a dynamic panel regression model. We find that related variety in general has no impact on growth. Instead, after separating related variety among low-and-medium-tech sectors from related variety among high-tech sectors, we find that only the latter affects regional growth. Hence, we find evidence that the effect of related variety on regional employment growth is conditioned by the technological intensity of the local sectors involved.

Institutional Entrepreneurship for Knowledge Regions: In Search of a Fresh Set of Questions for Regional Innovation Studies

We investigate conceptually the institutional change process and innovation underpinning knowledge-based regional development from the point of view of institutional entrepreneurship. The main aim is to raise institutional entrepreneurship among debated concepts in regional development studies. We set out to discuss the following question: what kind of conceptual base provides empirical studies with a fresh set of research questions and hence point of departure in a study of the ways in which actors influence the course of events and aim to change the very institutional setting in which they are embedded?

Regional development and regional networks: The role of regional development officers in Finland

People responsible for regional development often understand fairly well the need to construct regional advantage and build clusters. They also know the importance of industry—university interaction and they have been taught to respect innovation systems and to build them. But what they have not been given much advice on is how to do it — how to create networks for these purposes, how to direct and maintain them, how to lead complex policy networks. Network management, or leadership in networks, in the context of regional economic development is a black box not only for practitioners but for academics too. The research questions discussed here are: a) what do regional development officers actually do in the early 21st century to gain influence in policy networks, and hence in their efforts to promote regional development, and b), related to the first question, what are the key processes in their efforts to mobilize policy networks and guide them. The empirical research is based on data gathered through 41 interviews with Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of regional development at different levels of regional development activity.

Great Leap or Long March to Knowledge Economy: Institutions, Actors and Resources in the Development of Tampere, Finland

Tampere, the second largest city-region in Finland, has been accustomed to continuous change throughout its history. First, it developed from a small village into Finlands leading industrial town. When traditional industry fell into crisis, Tampere once more had to recreate itself and has since risen to a position in which it is among the top cities on the cutting edge of utilizing the possibilities of new knowledge-based technologies. The objective of this article is to recognize the internal and external forces that have had an impact on the development of Tampere, Finland, as well as the dynamics of the relationships between them. The objective is thus to identify those factors and forces that have laid the foundation for economic change and the development of the new knowledge economy. This article first frames the core concepts used in the analysis, and then, describes and analyses the development of Tampere from a small village into the leading industrial town in Finland, and further, into one of the pre-eminent cities of the knowledge economy.

Strategic adaptation to the knowledge economy in less favoured regions: a South Ostrobothnian University network as a case in point

Today, the study of regions is central to academic analysis and policy deliberation on how to respond to the rise of the knowledge economy. Regional Economies as Knowledge Laboratories illustrates how newer types of regional analysis – utilising scientometrics, knowledge services measures and university networks, and concepts such as knowledge life cycles, experimental knowledge creation, and knowledge ethics – are leading to a perception that regional economies increasingly resemble knowledge laboratories.

Institutional entrepreneurship, power, and knowledge in innovation systems: institutionalization of regenerative medicine in Tampere, Finland

In this paper we ask what is the place of institutional entrepreneurship in a (regional) innovation system. The main research questions addressed are (a) how does a new science-based concentration of innovation become institutionalized in an innovation system; (b) who are the institutional entrepreneurs and what do they actually do in their efforts to institutionalize new beliefs, practices, and activities within a system; and (c) what knowledge do institutional entrepreneurs need and what kind of power do they exercise in the institutionalization process. We add new knowledge to studies focusing on innovation systems by revealing how new elements are attached into it. We also add power and knowledge to the study of institutional entrepreneurship and institutional change. The empirical analysis identifies the main phases of institutionalization, key actors in different phases, and their strategies of influence. This paper is based on the analysis of secondary data and twenty-eight interviews with key actors.

Local or Digital Buzz, Global or National Pipelines: Patterns of Knowledge Sourcing in Intelligent Machinery and Digital Content Services in Finland

In regional innovation systems (RIS), there is a need to identify the knowledge bases that firms draw upon and differentiate innovation policies accordingly. From this premise, the main aim of this paper is to compare two Finnish industries, intelligent machinery and digital content services, that draw upon different kinds of knowledge bases. The three main research questions discussed here are as follows: (a) do knowledge sources of the firms representing two different industries with two different knowledge bases differ from each other, and how; (b) how do the knowledge sources differ between different types of RIS and (c) what kind of extra-regional pipelines do the three different cases have? The RIS under scrutiny represent fragmented metropolitan (Helsinki metropolitan area), old industrial (Tampere region) and organizationally thin (South Ostrobothnia) RIS.

Governance, Agency and Place Leadership : Lessons from a Cross National Analysis

ABSTRACT Governance, agency and place leadership: lessons from a cross-national analysis. Regional Studies. This paper argues that few accounts of place leadership have found an appropriate balance between structural and individual processes, resulting, on the one hand, in an over-emphasis on the actions of a limited number of charismatic leaders and, on the other hand, in structural analyses blind to the decisions and actions of individuals and groups. This paper attempts to offer a more balanced perspective through the examination of leadership in two, contrasting, sets of circumstances. It uses the differing economic, political, administrative and social structures evident in Finland and South Australia to understand better the ways in which structural conditions encourage, or limit, place leadership.

Making sense of leadership in urban and regional development

ABSTRACT Making sense of leadership in urban and regional development. Regional Studies. This editorial paves the way for the articles addressing several contemporary sub-national leadership experiences in England, Australia, Finland, China, the Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, Denmark and Sweden. It introduces place leadership as a mode of reflexive agency in urban and regional development, and discusses the value as well as the difficulties and limitations of studying it. Place leadership has the potential to provide an additional ‘agential’ lens through which issues and relationships of structure and agency can be explored in urban and regional development.

Reflections on ‘Mobilizing leadership in cities and regions’

Andrew Beer and Terry Clower, in their article ‘Mobilizing leadership in cities and regions’ in this issue, begin their important review on leadership as so many have done before them: by finding the concept enticing but elusive. Broadly speaking, leadership demands us to take a look at it again and again, in different environs and at different times. Such questions as: Do we actually need leaders? Why do some people become leaders and some others do not? How do leaders influence communities and for what? and Why do some leaders seem to produce good results while some do not? are examples that deserve to be posed repeatedly. Interestingly, these kinds of questions have raised only a limited interest in the regional studies and regional science communities. As Beer and Clower say, the dominant regional development theories and models have recently more often than not removed purposive agency from the local/regional economic development equation. Additionally, fairly often such concepts as power and influence, or more broadly politics, are left for other disciplines to address. Therefore, the link between leadership and local/regional economic development remains something of a black box. Perhaps regional studies scholars ignore leadership and power because they do not matter much, or, more likely, we ignore them as they matter so much that we do not even dare to think about diving into the spidery webs of power and influence. Of course, these issues have been studied extensively in the past (e.g., Logan & Molotch, 1987) and there are also notable examples of renewed interest (e.g., Collinge, Gibney, & Mabey, 2010).