Abstract
While regional innovation systems (RIS) saw a relative development in many European countries in recent years due to decentralisation policies, they are at an early stage in Turkey, a unitary state with a strong centralised system rooted in the administrative structures of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish region of Izmir was the first in the country to elaborate its own Regional Innovation Strategy in 2012 and achieved considerable improvements in its R&D and innovation capacity, based on the strategy’s recommendations. What are the key factors driving the transition from a nascent to a mature RIS, and how can the transition be further enhanced? This paper aims to answer these questions by examining the Izmir RIS from the fine-grained perspective of the Triple Helix Systems concept, which sees regional innovation as the result of the interplay between a Knowledge Space, an Innovation Space and a Consensus Space. The spaces co-evolve in a multitude of ways and directions as a non-linear process and provide a detailed view of regional actors, knowledge flows and interactions between them, and the resources available, in view of identifying existing blockages or gaps and formulating policy recommendations. The picture provided by the Triple Helix Spaces is complemented, for a more comprehensive approach, with insights drawn from three other RIS typologies based on integration into internal and external environments, regional barriers to innovation, and regional development stage. We conclude that the key factor driving these improvements was the presence of high-impact national and regional R&D, innovation and entrepreneurship policies that have been implemented in a relatively well-defined Triple Helix System. Izmir’s Triple Helix System features a more advanced Knowledge Space with a comprehensive, high-density institutional structure and a solid knowledge base, a younger but fast developing Innovation Space, with an increasing number of technology transfer offices, technoparks and innovation-support institutions, and a thinner, yet active Consensus Space promoting regional networking and collaborative leadership. For a successful transition to a mature RIS, policy and practice in the next stages need to focus on reducing fragmentation and strengthening the systemic linkages between the three Spaces.
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Notes
- 1.
Izmir Regional R&D and Innovation Capacity Analysis; Izmir Regional Innovation Strategy Field Survey, and the Situational Analysis on R&D and Innovation Ecosystem in İzmir. These studies were conducted in 2010–2011 by Izmir Development Agency in collaboration with Ege University Science and Technology Centre (EBİLTEM) and the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT).
- 2.
ERAWATCH Country Reports 2011: Turkey, pp. 16–17.
- 3.
This refers to the share of active researchers involved in projects funded by TUBITAK.
- 4.
TURKSTAT and YÖK, 2016 https://biruni.tuik.gov.tr/medas/?kn=95&locale=tr. Accessed on 10.02.2016.
- 5.
Among public universities, Ege University is the oldest (est. 1955), followed by Dokuz Eylul University (1982) and Izmir University of Technology (1994). Among private universities, Izmir University of Economics, the region’s first private university, was established by Izmir Chamber of Commerce in 2001.
- 6.
URAP Research Laboratory of the Information Institute of Middle East Technical University has released yearly world rankings of 2000 higher education institutions since 2010 (http://www.urapcenter.org).
- 7.
Bornova Veterinary Control and Research Institute, Bornova Pesticide Control Research Institute, Aegean Forestry Research Directorate, ETAE—Aegean Agricultural Research Institute, İzmir Provincial Directorate of Control Laboratory, İzmir Agricultural Quarantine Directorate, UTAEM—Agricultural Research and Education Centre, and Olive Cultivation Research Station Directorate.
- 8.
They are government-subsidised, tax-exempted, need to employ minimum 50 FTE as R&D staff graduated from a 4-year university.
- 9.
Latest data is available for Izmir.
- 10.
Academic researchers can start a company only in a technopark/TDZ, upon permission from the University Executive Board, for the purposes of commercialising research results, become a partner in an established company, and/or take positions in the management of such companies. If the company is set up outside of a technopark/TDZ, the researcher is penalised with a 50% salary reduction.
- 11.
These two TUBITAK programmes currently support 34 TTOs, of which 24 belong to public universities and 10 to private ones.
- 12.
Competence in scientific and technological research (20%), pool of IPR (15%), collaboration and interaction (25%), entrepreneurial and innovative culture (15%), and economic contribution and commercialisation (25%).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
Selected from http://studyinizmir.com/about-the-university-platform/
- 18.
- 19.
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Ranga, M., Temel, S. (2018). From a Nascent to a Mature Regional Innovation System: What Drives the Transition?. In: Meissner, D., Erdil, E., Chataway, J. (eds) Innovation and the Entrepreneurial University. Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62649-9_10
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