Transcript Nordic SMEs and Regional Innovation Systems

Co-evolution in Constructing Regional Advantage:
Exploring the Multiple Roles of Lund University in
Strengthening the Scania Regional Innovation
System
Björn Asheim, Paul Benneworth, Lars Coenen, Jerker Moodysson
CIRCLE: Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy, Lund University Sweden
Department of Social and Economic Geography, Lund University, Sweden
CURDS: Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, University of Newcastle, UK
From comparative to constructed advantage
• Comparative advantage: criticized for dismissing the
role of technological change and innovation
• Competitive advantage: too narrowly institutional
oriented by focusing on the creation of endogenous
capacity of regions to learn and innovate by an
interaction of markets and networks
• Constructed advantage: acknowledges more the
important interplay between industrial dynamics
(knowledge bases) and organisational dynamics as
well as private-public complementarities in policy
making by a stronger focus on actors, agencies and
governance forms in a multi-level perspective.
Platform Policy
• The dilemma of regional innovation: from imitation to
innovative adaptation
• Industrial renewal takes place in-between and
beyond existing sectors – need for transcending
traditional sector policies
• Innovation through combining existing knowledge,
technologies and competencies with new generic
technologies (IT, biotech)
• How to shape conditions for cross-fertilization?
Platform Policy II
• Related variety – creating spillover effects
- Related variety: related sectors in terms of shared or
complementary knowledge bases and competences
- specialisation of localisation economies + diversity of
urbanisation economies
• Differentiated knowledge bases
- analytial <> synthetic <> symbolic
• Distributed knowledge networks
- from internal knowledge within firms to distributed knowledge
networks of firms across a range of technologies, industries
and sectors in global value chains
Sector characteristics and universities institutional learning:
differentiated knowledge bases (Asheim and Gertler, 2005)
Synthetic
Analytical
Innovation by application or novel
combination of existing knowledge
Innovation by creation of new knowledge
Importance of applied, problem related
knowledge (engineering) often through
inductive processes
Importance of scientific knowledge often
based on deductive processes and formal
models
Interactive learning with clients and suppliers
Research collaboration between firms (R&D
department) and research organisations
Dominance of tacit knowledge due to more
concrete know-how, craft and practical skill
Dominance of codified knowledge due to
documentation in patents and publications
Communities of practice
Epistemic communities
Platform policies – Japan’s new cluster policy:
Ex: Strengthening policies for advanced
component/materials industries
Regional Innovation Systems (RIS)?
In Constructing Regional Advantage RIS is still important:
A RIS is constituted by two sub-systems and the systemic
interaction between them (and with non-local actors
and agencies):
• The knowledge generation and diffusing sub-system
(universities, technical colleges, R&D institutes,
technology transfer agencies, business associations
and finance institutions)
• The knowledge exploitation sub-system (firms in
regional clusters as well as their support industries
(customers and suppliers))
Regional Innovation Systems
RIS
Knowledge Generation
Subsystem
(universities, research
institutes, technology
transfer offices, etc)
Extra-RIS
Knowledge
exchange /
Interactive
Learning
(e.g. scientific
communities,
(inter)national
research
collaboration
Intra-RIS
Knowledge
exchange /
Interactive
Learning
Knowledge
Exploitation
Subsystem
(business, possibly
cluster)
Extra-RIS
Knowledge
exchange /
Interactive
Learning
(e.g. global
value chains,
transnational
corporation)
Governance
Policy
Institutions
Regional Innovation Policy
Support: Financial
and technical
Behavioural
change:
Learning to
innovate
Firm-focused
Financial support
Brokers
Mobility
schemes
System-focused
Technology centres
Regional
innovation
systems
Emerging trends
Universities are increasingly seen as important actors for
regional development in the knowledge economy
• Constructing regional advantage
– Actively upgrading and building regional innovation
systems has become important objectives in
regional development
• University’s third mission
– As active contributors to regional innovative
capacity by being actors in the knowledge
generation subsystem of RIS
The role of universities in RIS
Third mission (after teaching and research): direct
interaction between universities and society
– Creating high-tech firms
– Consulting for local industry
– Delivering advice for politicians
– Informing general public debates
Knowledge economy discourse prevails
• Generative role: discrete outputs in response to
specific demands
• Developmental outputs: development of regional
institutional capacities (Gunesekara, 2006)
Objective and reserach question
To analyze and compare three mechanisms through
which Lund University has contributed to Scanias RIS
– IDEON Science Park
– Life Science Cluster Medicon Valley
– VINNVÄXT support for the food sector ’Innovation i
Gränsland’ (Food Innovation at Interfaces)
How do different organizations and institutions in the RIS
co-evolve over time when the university is faced with
competing sectoral demands for regional engagement?
Scania
LU involvement in the region’s industries
Sector
Knowledge base
Governance
Structure
Technology Status
ICT
Synthetic/
analytical, creating
spin-offs and
upgrading existing
firms
Well developed with Mature high
wide range of
technology
supportive/
dedicated BSOs
Life science
Analytical: creating
new growth
businesses in novel
market areas
Aspirational,
attempting to learn
from existing
structures
Disruptive
technology
Food
Synthetic:
upgrading an old
industry, shifting its
value composition
’Old boys network’,
very traditional,
potentially locked in
Mature technology
ICT-From Ideon to a Regional Innovation System
• Ericsson (now Sony Ericsson) funded 20 staff in the
early 1980s.
• IDEON, the first Science Park in Scandinavia,
established 1983. LU was at this time foremost a
supplier of human capital.
• Main challenge: avoid lock in to the former industrial
configuration, promote a dynamic ICT cluster.
• IDEON proved to be an important point of stability
around which new ICT activities could emerge. LU
deepened its engagement in regional policy.
• IDEON was an arena for concrete activity in which
various regional partners where co-operating → an
institutional opening up process → a more flexible RIS
Life Science – From Local Integration to Global Visibility
• Long history of pharma and medtech in the region (Astra,
Pharmacia, Gambro etc).
• Strong growth of biotech firms (DBFs) since early 1990s (today ~
35 DBFs). Successful academic life science research. High quality
health care.
• Medicon Valley Academy established in the mid 1990s as an
initiative by Lund and Copenhagen Universities to promote
knowledge transfer between companies, universities and health
care organisatoins in the region.
• Early enthusiasm has decreased. Global collaboration proved
indispensable. MVA strategy was revised. Less focus on local
integration, more on global visibility (e.g. attract VC and research
funds, link up with other CoE etc).
• Other LU initiatives with similar rationale: BMC, Stem Cell Centre,
Swegene, SCIBLU
Food – From Process Streamlining to Innovation at Interfaces
• Scania represents 45% of Sweden’s total food
production but increasingly outsourced
• VINNVÄXT funding to stimulate a transition from price
competition and economies of scale to quality
competition and economies of scope
• Increase the added value and upgrade the innovative
capacity by targeting new market opportunities
• A central role for Scania Food Innovation Network, a
public-private cooperation in which LU is a leading
member
Food – From Process Streamlining to Innovation at Interfaces
Food Innovation at Interfaces seeks to realise the
potential of a latent innovation network between
university and food industry
Broad and interdisciplinary approach
• Food and Health – Functional Food
• Convenience foods and logistics
• Marketing of Advanced food products
• IDEON Agro food: technology transfer directly related
to the food industry
Conclusions
• Deepened contribution: from provider of human capital
to an orchestrator of regional innovation support
• Widening involvement: through its national and
international networks the university has extended the
innovation network of regional actors
• Integrating various sectors: innovativeness and
competitiveness generated by related variety in the
regional economy with the university as a core
Increased activity-level and overlap between different
innovation activities > merging organizational units
within the university (CoE)
Multiple impacts of university engagement on restructuring and
strengthening the RIS
‘Global’
‘Regional’
3. Unifying
2. Widening
Scania RIS
Local knowledge
exploiters
University
1. Deepening
Resource
flows