On Regional Systems of Innovation: Illustrations from the West Midlands

The data presented here were collected as one component of a project aimed at developing a regional innovation strategy for the West Midlands region of England. Like most regional policy measures the regional innovation strategy programme was driven by concern over widening economic performance differences between (European) regions and was intended as a means of closing observed cohesion and technology gaps [Commission of the European Communities, 1998 Reinforcing Cohesion and Competitiveness Through Research, Technological Development and Innovation COM (98) 275]. More importantly, however, the notion that distinct regional innovation strategies may be developed in each assisted region is premised on a belief in underlying idiosyncrasies in regional resource endowments, competencies, institutional infrastructure, industry, and governance. In other words, it is premised on the belief that there exist, or may exist with sufficient encouragement or facilitation, distinct regional innovation systems within Europe (Thomas K, 2000 Regional Studies34 190–198). Accordingly, my purpose in the current paper is to outline the basic precepts underpinning a systemic approach to innovation, generally, and a regional systemic approach, specifically. Thereafter, an attempt is made to map partially the existence, or indeed absence, of a West Midlands regional innovation system, proxied by available firm-level data, and to comment on the appropriateness of regional systems of innovation as units of analyses.