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The dynamics of regional learning paradigms and trajectories

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Abstract

While the literature is rich with studies on the identification of alternative types of learning processes that might exist in the real world, the identification of the determinants of the structural changes in regional learning processes is still an underexplored research field in regional innovation theories. This paper proposes the concept of regional learning paradigms and trajectories to study how alternative and more advanced learning processes arise in a region, and highlights the evolutionary path-creation strategies enabling a paradigmatic jump. By taking into consideration also learning modes typical of peripheral or declining industrial areas, generally left aside in previous theories, this new conceptual approach allows us to understand how more complex learning and innovation processes can emerge in all types of regions. From these reflections, spontaneous processes or policy recommendations to catch-up in the innovation ladder are highlighted for each type of region.

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Notes

  1. For a review, see Moulaert and Sekia (2003).

  2. We acknowledge that learning and innovation processes are centered in firms and economic agents and each single economic agent in a region can show different innovative behaviors. However, we agree with other authors that there is a necessity of overcoming methodological individualism so to give full recognition of the role of territory: “if individual firms and individual people undertake collective activities, facilitated by (and creators of) trust and local social capital; and if significant cognitive synergies, readily apparent in the local milieu, result from their various interactions; and finally if these actions and these processes draw additional vitality from cooperation with local public administrations; then it appears justifiable to go beyond methodological individualism - which regards only single firms as operating and competing - arguing the logical validity of a ‘collective’ concept such as that of territory, and to affirm that territories compete among themselves, using the creation of collective strategies as their instrument.” (Camagni 2002, p. 2406). For a similar approach, see Schamp 2005; Audretsch 2015).

  3. Cooke (2001) himself acknowledges that regional innovation systems are rare.

  4. The conceptual typology of regions used in this paper has been also empirically proved for 262 NUTS2 regions of the EU (Capello and Lenzi 2013).

  5. For a more in-depth discussion on the different types of trajectories, see Capello and Lenzi (2013).

  6. For an example on this specific point, see Dosi (1982, p. 155) and Dosi and Orsenigo (1988, pp.19-20).

  7. In other words, changes in a learning trajectory do not automatically lead to a change of paradigm unless they are matched by changes in a region’s functional and relational systems.

  8. In the literature, in general, path-dependence refers to complex processes unable to shake themselves free of their history (David 2001).

  9. Several scholars have recently commented on the increasing popularity of the notion of path-dependence in the scientific arena, as supported by database searches in organization, management, economics and, more generally, social science journals (Vergne and Durand 2010). A critical debate on its application for the analysis of the evolution of local economies is also in progress (Martin and Sunley 2006; Martin 2010; Henning et al. 2013).

  10. This notion of path-dependence is close to Martin (2012)’s notion of ‘developmental path-dependence’ and path-creation. In this respect, it is worth stressing that Martin (2010, 2012) rejects the possibility that path-dependence can explain persistence and inertia, while he only retains the interpretation of path-dependence as a developmental concept. Moreover, he applies the notion of path-dependence to the evolution of local economies, whereas, in the present context path-dependence is meant to account for the existence of current learning trajectories and paradigms and their possible alternative evolutionary paths.

  11. As discussed in Section 3, the move from the basic to the applied science-based trajectory within the science-based paradigm is conceivable and rational to avoid the diminishing returns associated with that trajectory.

  12. Frenken and Boschma (2007) define branching as a process aimed at the generation of new routines needed for innovation by recombination and modification of existing ones, where the routine replication process (based on new firm creation, labor mobility, spin-offs) largely shows distinctive spatial patterns. Routine replication is mainly driven by related variety, meaning that replication primarly occurs in new but proximate cognitive fields in a given cognitive space.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering (ABC), Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Roberta Capello & Camilla Lenzi

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  1. Roberta Capello
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  2. Camilla Lenzi
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Correspondence to Camilla Lenzi.

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Capello, R., Lenzi, C. The dynamics of regional learning paradigms and trajectories. J Evol Econ 28, 727–748 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-018-0565-5

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