Robert P. van der Have

Benchmarking regional innovative performance: composite measures and direct innovation counts

There is a considerable amount of discussion, but still no consensus, about which indicator should be used to measure innovation. To participate in this debate, a unique innovation database, SFINNO, is introduced. Innovation counts from the database are used as the baseline, to which individual proxy indicators (patent- and research and development statistics) of innovation and innovation indexes, constructed here with principal component analysis, are compared. The local administrative units of Finland serve as the regional units benchmarked. The study results show that innovation is a complex phenomenon which cannot be entirely explained through the use of proxy statistics, as the linkages between innovation input- and output-indicators are fuzzy. We also show that the strength of these linkages varies by field of technology. Furthermore, different innovation measures produce highly divergent rankings when they are used as benchmarking tools of regional innovative performance. Although the produced innovation indexes perform slightly better, their superiority is marginal. Therefore, caution should be taken before drawing too drastic policy conclusions depending on a single measure of regional innovative performance.

System Transition Concepts and Framework for Analysing Energy System Research and Governance

System transitions are complex societal co-evolutionary processes that are typically led by gradual adaptation rather than visionary management or coordination. Still, visionary coordination of policies, regulation, corporate strategies and social learning may overcome some barriers and foster new innovation efforts providing sufficient impetus towards system transition. Building on earlier literature and experiences on system transitions and related research and governance, this paper develops an analytical framework. This framework integrates different transitions phases, levels and dimensions and combines them with the governance functions to provide overarching frames for understanding system transitions. While the framework is developed keeping in mind its application in the Nordic energy system transition research and governance, it may also be applicable in other sectors. For the didactic purposes, the paper applies the framework in the analysis of the three energy sector projects by positioning them in the developed framework. Further in-depth analysis of recent and on-going research and governance efforts may provide a good basis to identify relevant synergies and areas for future developments. Moreover, the use of such an overarching transition framework supports the coordination efforts between many sometimes even controversial efforts in the development of energy systems.

Innovation as Objective: The SFINNO Approach

Research on innovations and innovative activity has been applying different sources of information to help in understanding the phenomenon and to investigate various research questions related to it. As the field of innovation studies is quite broad, incorporating various research topics which, in addition, can be approached from various perspectives, there cannot be one source of data superior to all others. Rather the different databases and information repositories offer diverse data, and thus are often taken as complementing rather than substituting each other. Most commonly used information sources include, for instance, patent databases and patent citation databases, innovation and R&D surveys, as well as R&D expenditure statistics. In the chapters of this book, the main source of innovation data has been the database of Finnish innovations, namely SFINNO. The database is developed, constructed and maintained by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

When the Going Gets Tough: Failure of Innovative Businesses

Innovation is widely believed to play a key role for the survival and competitiveness of firms. The significance of innovation has been stressed increasingly among academics in recent decades, and policy-makers and practitioners have rather pervasively adopted the view. Nowadays, continuous renewal by firms is considered as an essential organizational process in coping with technological progress (Teece et al., 1997) and the positive effect of innovation as a cornerstone of renewal seems almost unquestionably accepted. Firms can pursue product innovations to go into new industries or markets, or introduce new technologies or product features in their existing domains to extract greater rents or obtain an advantage vis-a-vis their competitors (Burgelman and Sayles, 1986). Greve and Taylor (2000) mention innovation as a ‘competitive weapon’ to get new resources and competences when radically new product introductions undermine the incumbent technological regime.

Convergence in Innovation

In the literature of economics and innovation, the concept of convergence has been approached from a plurality of perspectives. Most commonly, convergence has been understood in technological terms or in the context of regional economic development within or between nations. In the past, the innovation concept, however, has not been linked explicitly to convergence. During the last decades, by contrast, innovation has emerged in the discussions related to national and sectoral systems of innovations, as well as in the growth and development policy of EU. Here, innovation has become very prominent as a means of convergence. Despite of the emerging role of innovation in these discussions, innovations and innovativeness has always been analyzed with help of some proxies (like patents, R&D investments, etc.). Characteristics of innovations and innovation processes have not been taken more systematically into account when new policies are planned and executed.