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Entrepreneurship Policies and the Development of Regional Innovation Systems: Theory, Policy and Practice

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New Avenues for Regional Innovation Systems - Theoretical Advances, Empirical Cases and Policy Lessons

Abstract

The regional innovation systems (RIS) approach tends to be short in the coverage of the importance of agency in the dynamics of economic change. This paper addresses this by putting the entrepreneur, which Schumpeter (Capitalism, socialism and democracy. Harper & Row, 1911/1934) placed at the heart of the analysis of economic change, as the driving force of regional innovation systems and associated policies. This is consistent with work by Feldman and Francis (Clusters and Regional Development, Routledge, 2006) who identified the entrepreneur as a regional agent of change.

The paper provides an appraisal and synthesis of the regional innovation systems approach in relation to entrepreneurship policies. It addresses a number of areas where theoretical, empirical and policy-based issues are currently under-developed in relation to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy. There are three major themes. The first is the agency of both entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship policies in an RIS. The second is the rationale for entrepreneurship policies in an RIS. The third relates to what do entrepreneurship policies look like in RIS and how they might be evaluated as contributing towards an RIS.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.scoopproject.org.uk/1frida-anchor-firms-contribute-to-regional-development.aspx (accessed April 18, 2017).

  2. 2.

    https://www.reference.com/business-finance/examples-entrepreneurial-resources-8ffc0345a58512be# (accessed Jan 2, 2017).

  3. 3.

    http://search.oecd.org/std/business-stats/39629644.pdf (accessed April 23, 2017).

  4. 4.

    http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/structural-business-statistics/entrepreneurship/indicators (accessed April 23, 2017).

  5. 5.

    http://www.gemconsortium.org/ (accessed April 23, 2017).

  6. 6.

    Another study have explored how to measure entrepreneurial ecosystems at the regional level https://www.henley.ac.uk/files/pdf/research/papers-publications/CFE-2015-02_Szerb_et_al.pdf (accessed April 23, 2017).

  7. 7.

    https://www.santander.co.uk/csdlvlr/BlobServer?blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadervalue1=inline%3Bfilename%3DSantander+Enterprise+Index+2014+FINAL.pdf&blobwhere=1314014342269&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition – accessed December 8 2017.

  8. 8.

    http://cor.europa.eu/en/documentation/studies/Documents/Forstering_innovation_EER.pdf (accessed January 12, 2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Birkbeck & Director of Research, Oxfordshire Economic Observatory, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

    Helen Lawton Smith

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  1. Helen Lawton Smith
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Correspondence to Helen Lawton Smith .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Law, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway

    Arne Isaksen

  2. School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Roman Martin

  3. Department of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Michaela Trippl

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Smith, H.L. (2018). Entrepreneurship Policies and the Development of Regional Innovation Systems: Theory, Policy and Practice. In: Isaksen, A., Martin, R., Trippl, M. (eds) New Avenues for Regional Innovation Systems - Theoretical Advances, Empirical Cases and Policy Lessons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71661-9_12

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