Teemu Makkonen

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.

Innovation quality in knowledge cities: Empirical evidence of innovation award competitions in Finland

Abstract Innovation awards have for long attracted policy makers as a method for innovation promotion. Still, academic research on innovation awards has thus far received little attention. In particular, empirical studies on the motives to enter award competitions and the realized impacts of winning an innovation award are scarce. This study addresses this research gap. Firm-level evidence, questionnaire data on innovation award winning companies of the Finnish national Innofinland and Quality Innovation of the Year award competitions, indicate that the motives for companies to participate in award competitions and the realized impacts of winning an award are largely the same: media coverage and a credibility boost. The importance of innovation awards in innovation policy was, however, considered only as mediocre or modest. As a conclusion it can be stated that innovation awards are an additional tool for innovation promotion, alongside innovation inducement policies including tax reductions and direct funding, as they produce significant positive effects for the award winning companies, and an additional indicator of innovation quality in the context of knowledge cities.

Innovative Capacity, Educational Attainment and Economic Development in the European Union: Causal Relations and Geographical Variations

Abstract This article sets out to examine the innovative capacity of the European Union (EU) countries and regions vis-à-vis educational attainment and economic development, as it is frequently stated that innovation and the availability of human capital, specifically education, are the key drivers of economic growth. In addition to the aggregate level, the countries and NUTS-2 regions of the EU, and traditional indicators of the studied dimensions, were used as observation units. Granger causality tests identified education as a driving force behind innovative capacity and economic development, whereas the relationship between innovative capacity and economic development is bidirectional. The study results also confirm the existence of innovation paradoxes in form of rising research and development expenditures but modest rate of gross domestic product growth. The implications of the results concern the recognition of spatial generalizations and national variations, identification and creation of development strategies and the horizontal and vertical collaborations between the public and private sectors.

Scientific collaboration between `old' and `new' member states: Did joining the European Union make a difference?

Abstract This paper provides new insights on the effects of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and European integration by investigating the issue of scientific collaboration within the new EU member states vis-à-vis the old EU member states. The question addressed is whether the EU membership following the two enlargement waves 2004 and 2007 has significantly increased the co-publication intensity of the new member states with other member countries. The empirical results based on data collected from the Web of Science database and Difference-in-Difference estimations point towards a conclusion that joining the EU indeed has had an additional positive impact on the co-publication intensity between the new and old member states and, in particular, within the new member states themselves. These results give tentative support for the successfulness of the EU’s science policies in achieving a common ‘internal market’ in research. We also find evidence for early anticipation effects of the consecutive EU accession.

Does Size Matter? Knowledge-Based Development of Second-Order City-Regions in Finland

Abstract Achieving knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) depends profoundly on not only encouraging the development of economic activities, but also strengthening the societal, environmental and governance bases of city-regions. In recent years, a number of global city-regions have been investigated from the angle of this multidimensional perspective, which has provided a new comprehension of the development processes of primate city-regions. However, there is a knowledge gap in understanding how KBUD works in the second-order city-region (SOCR) context. This warrants more attention as SOCRs potentially help secure balanced development and territorial cohesion. This paper aims to empirically investigate KBUD performances of SOCRs in order to generate new insights. An assessment framework is utilised in the Finnish context, where the findings provide a nationally bench-marked snapshot of the degree of achievements of SOCRs based on numerous KBUD performance areas. The results shed light on the unique Finnish urban and regional development process, and provide lessons for other SOCRs.

Spatial scaling of regional strategic programmes in Finland: A qualitative study of clusters and innovation systems

Innovation systems and clusters are perhaps the most widely used concepts found in recent economic geography literature focusing on innovative industrial production and locational agglomeration. Both concepts have been universally embraced since the early 1990s onwards. However, recent literature has expressed criticism of their use as tools for policymaking. The authors studied innovation and cluster rhetoric in a geographical context by using empirical evidence obtained from the policy documents of the Finnish regional councils. They used a theoretical conception of spatial scaling as a geographical framework. Spatial scales proved to be a black box for regional strategies in Finland. Regional strategic programmes use a similar language that ignores the spatial variations of their locations. Clusters and regional innovation systems should be considered as parts of vertical and horizontal interlinkages within the economy and not as individual islands of organizational proximities in isolated contexts. The authors argued that an imprecise understanding of the innovation systems and cluster approaches, both conceptually and practically, has led to some ambiguity, resulting in the use of the terms clusters and innovation systems as buzzwords. This misuse hampers the ability of administrations to execute regional development in their respective areas.

ICT Innovation and Local Economy: Mobile Game as a Tourist Attraction

Innovations are considered crucial in boosting the growth of regions. Similarly, tourism is an important regional development tool, especially in areas with no industrial potential. Research on tourism innovation has been scarce until very recent years and the local economic impacts of innovation in tourism studies remain unexplored. This study addresses the innovative ICT application, a mobile game, and its significance as a tourist attraction in Pielinen Museum in Lieksa, a peripheral town in Eastern Finland. Pielinen Museum has a substantial effect on Lieksa municipality economy and the average visitor expenditure is substantially higher than expected based on previous studies on other local attractions. We conclude, however, the game is not known by the general public to attract visitors. From the museums point of view, the innovation will not have extensive influence as a standalone, one time effort. It needs better integration into the museums general public image and continuous support and updating for both contents and technique. Extensive networking with existing regional visitor attractions for increasing the publicity without excessive costs is highly advisable.

Cross-border regional innovation systems: conceptual backgrounds, empirical evidence and policy implications

ABSTRACT The concept of cross-border regional innovation systems (CBRIS) surfaced in the literature on economic geography through discourses that highlighted the need for broadening innovation systems to cross-border contexts. Since these early discussions, the theoretical backgrounds of CBRIS have been elaborated through notions of geographical scale, proximity and related variety in a range of conceptual papers proposing CBRIS as a comprehensive framework for analysing regional cross-border integration. However, the empirical literature on CBRIS has failed to keep up with the advances in conceptualization. This paper discusses the reasons behind this mismatch, which means that the concept still rests upon and draws policy suggestions based on a thin evidence base. Directions for further research are pointed out by underlining the need for holistic empirical validation of the concept together with the need of understanding how suggested policy measures based on CBRIS reasoning have been implemented in border regions, and their effectiveness in promoting cross-border integration.

Scientific collaboration in the Danish–German border region of Southern Jutland–Schleswig

This paper investigates the geographical and organizational patterns of scientific collaboration, in terms of co-authored scientific articles, in the Danish–German border region of Southern Jutland–Schleswig. The motivation behind the approach lies in the fact that scientific collaboration in border regions, in general, and the studied region, in particular, has rarely been discussed in the academic literature. The integration model of cross-border regional innovation systems provides the conceptual framework for the task. The paper, thus, gives methodological insights for the measurement of cross-border integration of knowledge infrastructures. The analysis reveals that collaborating with partners close but on the opposite side of the border is rare. Instead, cross-border collaboration takes place with partners from more faraway international research organizations. The reasons behind this can be found in the science bases – arguably more than from historic, linguistic or ethnic reasons – of the adjacent sides of the border. The research fields that the local scientists are engaged in seem to be too different between the Danish and German sides of the border region to foster large numbers of co-authored publications and, thus, the knowledge infrastructure of the border region can be considered as weakly integrated.

Tales from the Thousand Lakes: Placing the Creative Network of Metal Music in Finland

Music in general and the music industry in particular have been understudied subjects in the field of geography. The relatively scarce amount of literature on music industries has concentrated its attention on companies operating inside the industry, and on popular music. There is a gap in the knowledge on the networking processes of individuals inside the music industry and the geographical dynamics of music genres. Thus, as a point of departure, this study focuses on the creative individuals of a distinct music genre: namely, the bands and artists of the Finnish metal music genre, owing to the genres international recognition and its importance in the Finnish economy and society. According to the analysis the metal bands in Finland tend to cluster in the largest cities. There are, however, some exceptions—very small municipalities (in terms of population) with a fair number of metal bands. Still, the capital Helsinki is the most prominent cluster of metal music in Finland. A further social network analysis reveals that the metal music cluster of Helsinki has a network of short average path length and a high degree of clustering. In other words, the members of the network function in close collaboration with each other. This notion was also verified by mapping the joint-career path of the most prolific (connected) individuals inside the network.