Strategic Fit Between Regional Innovation Policy and Regional Innovation Systems: The Case of Local Public Technology Ce
Local public technology centers are publicly-managed technology transfer organizations, and their resource allocation strategies represent policy instruments for the promotion of localized knowledge spillovers. Since substantial regional differences exist
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Abstract Local public technology centers are publicly-managed technology transfer organizations, and their resource allocation strategies represent policy instruments for the promotion of localized knowledge spillovers. Since substantial regional differences exist with regard to the need for public technological services, policy instruments should consider these differences. This study develops a model and a method to evaluate whether the regional innovation policy matches the characteristics of a regional innovation system. The results indicate that the resource allocation strategies of technology centers have not been developed according to the needs of the regional environment; hence, technology transfer activities may not have been optimally utilized to facilitate regional economic development.
1 Introduction A regional innovation system is a conceptual framework in which industrial innovations are generated through interactions among the industries, universities, and government of a region (Howells 1999; Cooke et al. 2004; Mowery and Sampat 2005). The regional perspective is important when the geographical range of knowledge diffusion among economic agents is limited because of the tacit nature of the knowledge transferred. Since university knowledge is disseminated through publication, it does not encounter geographical limitations in diffusion. However, a number of empirical studies have indicated that spillovers from university research tend to be localized (Jaffe 1989; Anselin et al. 1997; Autant-Bernard 2001). That is, one economic agent near the university may benefit from university spillover,
N. Fukugawa (*) Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-11-804 Aramaki, Aoba-ku Sendai 980-8579, Japan e-mail: [email protected] A. Pyka and E.S. Andersen (eds.), Long Term Economic Development, Economic Complexity and Evolution, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-35125-9_13, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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whereas another in a geographically isolated area will not benefit from the spillover. Therefore, policy instruments for the promotion of the exchange of knowledge among industries, universities, and public research institutions can improve knowledge productivity in the region (Fritsch 2004; Fritsch and Franke 2004; Ronde and Hussler 2005). In the long run, regional differences in knowledge productivity will lead to regional differences in economic development. Among the regional innovation policies that have been implemented in developed countries, the establishment and expansion of local public technology centers in Japan constitute one of the most distinguished policy instruments. Local public technology centers, administrated by the prefectural and municipal governments, engage in providing technological support to small local firms. The centers were established before modern economic growth began in the nineteenth century; they increased in number during the twentieth century; and they now cover all prefectures and most technological categories. The technological
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