The Multiple Facets of Regional Innovation

Matthias Siller (), Christoph Hauser (), Janette Walde and Gottfried Tappeiner ()

Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck

Abstract: Measuring innovation activities involves critical decisions in selecting appropriate indicators and levels of observation. The present article contributes to the literature on this subject by addressing innovation measurement on the regional level. The dimensionality of regional innovation is examined by applying a principal component analysis on seven innovation output indicators in European regions from the Community Innovation Survey and two traditional indicators, i.e. patent applications and R&D expenses. The analysis reveals that regional innovation indeed needs to be regarded as a multidimensional concept involving technological, commercial and service innovation. These distinct innovation activities exhibit clear regional patterns with both technological and service innovation concentrated in highly developed territories and urban areas displaying particularly strong innovation performance in services. In addition, commercially successful innovation appears clustered in backward regions and may thus be seen as imitation efforts and technology transfers from areas at the innovation frontier. Overall, the elaborated findings suggest that the selection of innovation indicators in empirical analyses demands appropriate motivation and theoretical guidance.

Keywords: regional innovation; innovation dimensions; Principal Component Analysis; patent applications; Community Innovation Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O33 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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