Exploring the role of VRI in regional innovation system formation and new path development

VRI is an innovation program run by the Research Council of Norway to stimulate increased innovation and value creation in Norwegian regions by supporting the building of regional innovation systems and the formation of broad collaboration among regional stakeholders. The VRI program has been in operation since 2007, and is now starting its third and final phase. In this phase a new type of research program has been introduced, the synthesis project, which should seek to develop more general knowledge an d theories of innovation, innovation policy and policy measures at the regional level based on research carried out so far in the VRI program. The synthesis project Exploring the role of VRI in regional innovation system formation and new path development aims at analysing the existence of regional innovation systems in Norway, if and how the VRI program has contributed to their formation, and their effects on promoting existing and future competitiveness of firms in the regions. The project will also ana lyse potential governance and policy challenges at the regional and national level in implementing the program. The project will do this by re-analysing previous VRI research, by undertaking new and complementary research of both quantitative and qualitat ive type. In the quantitative analyses the project will make novel use of both firm-level survey data (Community Innovation Survey) and linked employer-employee register data (LEED). The new qualitative analyses will be supported by adopting a Social Netw ork Analysis to identify the existence and impact of regional innovation systems. The expected outcome of the research project is partly new and vital information about the existence of regional innovation systems in Norway and their effects on the innova tiveness of firms in different regions, and partly the role of VRI as an innovation policy program to promote the results.

The proposal has a strong focus on innovation systems and innovation policy, but also on innovation in firms. The mapping and measuring of interaction in RIS will provide important information about how firms innovate, their modes of innovation, and where knowledge for innovation is obtained. Thus, the proposal will contribute to both thematic priorities in the VRI program plan. The empirical strategy involves making novel use of both firm-level survey data (Community Innovation Survey (CIS) and a self-d eveloped survey) and linked employer-employee register data (LEED), as well as adopting a new method (Social Network Analysis (SNA)) to identify the existence of RIS, analyse interaction patterns and measure the impacts of being in a RIS. Combining new a nalyses of CIS and LEED data and doing SNA in regions where the project partners have conducted research in previous VRI programs will provide an overall picture of regional innovation as a background for more specific analyses, based on VRI 1 and 2 resea rch, and for new in-depth comparative case studies and informant interviews. These case studies will be used to assess the indirect impact of VRI on promoting RIS building and on the innovativeness of firms. A key part of this analysis will be to assess VRI's impact on other similar programs on regional and national levels. This strategy of combining quantitative and qualitative approaches will enable the project to expand on knowledge derived from previous VRI research to generate more general knowledg e and theories about innovation, innovation policy and policy measures on the regional level. While the theoretical knowledge of RIS and learning regions is comprehensive, there is less empirical evidence (except case studies) about the existence and imp act of RIS in a Norwegian context, or about the influence of policy in promoting the establishment of RIS. To date, few if any successful approaches have been developed to measure both RIS formation and its impact.