A review of (almost) 20 years of regional innovation systems research

ABSTRACT

The literature on regional innovation systems (RISs) has grown impressively in the last two decades. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of all RIS articles published in scholarly journals between 1998 and 2015. It aims to inform researchers of the empirical results obtained so far and highlight areas that need further work. This review describes how the RIS field has developed, charts the current body of RIS research and discusses recommendations for moving the RIS field forward.

KEYWORDS:

• Regional innovation systems
• systematic review
• empirical articles

Acknowledgements

The usual disclaimers apply. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the valuable comments provided the two reviewers. Finally, we are also most thankful to Arne Isaksen and Stig-Erik Jakobsen for inviting us to contribute this special issue on a research project financed by the Research Council of Norway on path dependence and regional renewal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCiD

Igone Porto Gomez http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2865-4818

Notes

1. The complete list of articles, both theoretical and empirical, used to conduct the review are available on request.

2. The rationale for defining six different thematic areas is based on the authors’ knowledge of the RIS field and previous review papers on the topics, which proved useful in identifying the various strands in this research field.

3. Observational studies analyse the behaviour of a sample, whereas surveys are used to collect larger amounts of data.

4. Articles concerned with value chain relationships mainly discuss relationships between the firms of the productive subsystems in the RIS; those concerned with competition deal with competitors inside RIS; and those concerned with coopetition discuss the cooperative relationship between direct competitors.

5. Nearly 20 per cent of the articles do not specify the type of innovation involved.

6. For the 1998–2004 period, about one-third of all RIS empirical research was published in European Planning Studies and Regional Studies, a period when two leading scholars in the RIS field (B.T. Asheim and P. Cooke) were acting as journal editors.

7. Impact factor of 3.117 (Journal Citation Index, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number SSHRC 410-2011-0108].