Understanding the dynamics of regional innovation networks in regional innovation systems

To strengthen regional clusters and networks with the purpose of enhancing regional innovation and value creation has been an important focus in recent years. However, the impact of different measures of innovation policy often remain unclear. In order to develop more effective innovation policies, there is a need for knowledge about the specific dynamics of formalized cluster and network initiatives and how policy instruments in different regional and industrial contexts work. This project examins the dynamics and benefits related to the formalization of what we coin Regional Innovation Network Organizations (RINO) through focusing on five regional industrial milieus in Eastern Norway. The industrial milieus and their corresponding RINOs are 1) Oslo MedTech (medical and welfare technology), 2) Oslo Renewable Energy and Environment Cluster or OREEC (environmental technology and renewable energy technology), 3) Clean Water Norway (water technology), 4) Electronic Coast (Micro and Nano-technology within electronics), and 5) Vestfold Filmforum (Film production). Our study show that all the RINOs have a high innovation intensity, exceeding industry numbers nationally. They also share a considerable growth in employment numbers and value creation, as well as an enhanced population of firms due to start-ups (2005-15). The relative growth in employment exceeds national numbers, while productivity numbers and profitability are close to industry average numbers. Moreover, a majority of the firms in our joint survey state that high innovation intensity relates to the reported growth in employment and value creation. Most of the growth in employment after the financial crisis 2009-15 happened in younger/new firms that were established after 2005, while employment show stagnating tendencies in older firms ? not unusual in maturing firms. However, both the older and newer firms report a high level of innovation. The electronic and medical milieus are more exposed to international conditions. Despite high reported innovation levels, the firms also state that financial barriers (lack of investments and too high innovation costs) represent the most important barriers to higher innovation rates. According to the National Innovation Survey, conducted by Statistics Norway, these barriers these are typical for urban and central area. Lack of collaborators and recruitment problems are less of an issue for the firms in our study. We find that the RINOs have contributed to innovation in the industrial milieus by: - Strengthening the innovation capacity in the firms - Producing innovations that would not have taken place without the RINO - Improving access to new knowledge, technology, customers and markets - Improving the knowledge about how other local entities might be relevant for the firms - Improving collaborative relations among the firms in the RINO. This indicates that the RINOs have had a valuable function for a significant group of firms in our industrial milieus in Eastern Norway the last years. Moreover, we find that appropriate network management or orchestration in the shape of appropriate events, advice, project acquisition and management skills and different forms of promotion are key components in this resepct. It is also worth noticing that the oldest RINO with the most consistent public funding is the one that reports significantly higher benefits of RINO participation. We also find that the homogenous RINOs seem to score higher on RINO benefits, while the more heterogenous RINOs with multiple, largely unrelated value chains and technologies score somewhat lower. The level of trust between network members positively correlates with the level of benefits the participants report from being part of the network.

Over the last decades there has been a dramatic increase in the number and size of publicly funded programs to develop and/or organize networks and clusters, with the purpose of enhancing innovation and value creation. The production of new knowledge about the dynamics of networks/clusters relative to outcome is therefore paramount to firms, network/cluster administrators and regional and national innovation policymakers. While Porter introduced the cluster concept describing endogenous competitiveness-enhancing concentrations of firms and, the meaning has now rather become that of a network of firms within the same or complementary industries geographically located in the same region and with some sort of formal member organization. We refer to this as a regional innovation-network (RIN). Research on RINs and clusters are typically embedded within separate scientific discourses. Research trying to combine perspectives from both is rare. This project meets this challenge by adopting an approach that explores the practices and possible effects of RINs at a network level, while also exploring how these practices and possible effects are conditioned by contextual factors that offer possibilities and constraints. Contextual factors will be analysed through an innovation systems approach that acknowledges regional, national and global influences, in addition to factors relating to certain characteristics of the network members. The primary research question is: What practices and events influence RIN outcome in the form of innovation and value creation under various contextual conditions? The project have the form of a longitudinal comparative case study comprising seven cases from two regions. Data will be both quantitative and qualitative. The selected RINs are: Electronic Coast (EC), Engineering Coast (ECO), Clean Water Norway (CWN), Vestfold FilmForum (VFF), IKT Simula, OREEC (Oslo Renewable Energy and Environment Cluster) and Oslo Medtec.