Reconsidering actor roles in regional innovation systems: transformative industrial change in the forest-based bioeconomy

Figures & data

Table 1. Regional innovation system (RIS) actors’ conventional roles in path development and additional roles during transformative change.

Actors in RIS	Conventional roles in path development	Additional roles during transformative change
Cluster organization (representing industry)	Promoting innovation by: Advancing local collaboration and learning Supporting (technological) knowledge exchange Providing collaboration platforms	Exerting influence on the public opinion regarding the industry and transformation at large; social acceptance for change is not given but must be formed Influencing the innovation direction of the industry and providing incentives to contribute to transformation (and by doing so, reducing uncertainty) Advancing learning and collaboration in breadth and in depth: facilitating new learning processes and new actor constellations Facilitating market formation through supporting institutional change and demand articulation
Authorities	Promoting innovation by: Creating arenas for (technological) knowledge exchange Attracting financial and complementary human resources/skills to the region	Providing legitimacy for societal and technological change Influencing the direction of search of RIS actors Mobilizing financial and human (in-house) resources Market formation, e.g., by engaging in supra-regional policy-impact activities Diffusing and combining knowledge in breadth and in depth, involving new actors and triggering new collaborations Experimenting through creating new learning opportunities around new technologies; reducing uncertainty
Research institutes and higher education	Providing education (i. e. human capital) Providing technological research	Development of knowledge in breadth additional to a technological focus; social science research becomes more important Providing science-based legitimacy for change by communicating the need for combined sociotechnical change
Firms	Innovating through technological knowledge exploitation Market creation (although less emphasized)	Technological knowledge exploitation and market creation targeting transformative change (new directionality) Anchoring with and consideration of societal challenges in innovation (novel breadth and depth in knowledge exploitation)