Which regions produce the most innovation policy research?

ABSTRACT

This article uses the data indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases up to and including the year 2020 to map leading regions and trending topics in academic innovation policy research. The country analysis highlights four leading regions in this research field: Western Europe (led by the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain), North America (led by the USA), Scandinavia (led by Sweden and Denmark), and Asia-Pacific (led by China and Australia). The most common keywords are used to develop a conceptual framework. Applying the Tree of Science approach, we classify the most influential studies into three categories: foundational studies (the roots), structural studies (the trunk), and recent studies (the leaves). This approach shows that trending topics are built around five main pillars: innovation systems, policy tools, knowledge management, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. Finally, based on analysis of the most common keywords and the most influential studies, we propose a Sextuple Helix model. This model consists of the Quintuple Helix (government, university, industry, knowledge society, and sustainability) with the added dimension of entrepreneurship. This model offers an analytical framework with massive potential for academic research on innovation policy in the current economic context.

KEYWORDS:

• Innovation policy
• innovation systems
• policy tools
• knowledge management
• sustainability
• entrepreneurship
• Sextuple Helix
• bibliometrics

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• O29
• O30
• O38
• O10
• O57‌

Acknowledgement

Norat Roig-Tierno wishes to thank Project [GV/2019/063], funded by the Generalitat Valenciana, and the “Agencia Estatal de Investigación y el Fondo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)” - RTI2018- 093791-B-C22 (MCI, AEI/FEDER, UE) for supporting this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Generalitat Valenciana: [Grant Number GV063/19]; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and FEDER: [Grant Number RTI2018-093791-B-C22].

Notes on contributors

Pedro López-Rubio

Pedro López-Rubio received his PhD in Economics from the Universitat Politècnica de València. His research is focused on innovation policy and models through quantitative and qualitative methodologies. He has presented papers at international conferences on innovation, technology transfer, knowledge management and regional development. He has published articles in international journals such as Journal of the Knowledge Economy, International Journal of Quality Innovation, and Information and Innovations.

Norat Roig-Tierno

Norat Roig-Tierno is professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Valéncia. His research is focused on innovation, regional development and the application of qualitative methodologies. He has presented numerous papers at international conferences. He has published articles and books in international journals including Applied Geography, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Social and Policy Administration, Journal of Business Research, among others. He is or has been on the editorial board of several journals.

Alicia Mas-Tur

Alicia Mas-Tur is professor in the Management Department at the Universitat de València. She has presented numerous papers at international conferences. She has also published articles and books in international journals including Service Industries Journal, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, and Service Business. She is or has been the guest editor and referee for international journals. She is or has been on the editorial board of several journals including the Journal of Business Research and Contemporary Economics.