Regional innovation system: potential and performance of the region and general characteristics

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• ali asghar sadabadi ¹
• zohreh rahimi rad ²
• kiarash fartash ²
• Fatemeh Jafarian ³

¹ Assistant Professor of Institute for Science and Technology Studies, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

² Ph.D. in Science and Technology Policy, Mazandaran University, Mazandaran, Iran

³ Master of Intrapreneurshi, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/erd.2022.70058.1038

Abstract

 
1- INTRODUCTION
      "Region" is a concept that plays an important role in the policy-making of the governments of the world. With the changes that have taken place and new technologies, a new type of region is needed today. Regions, as a combination of criteria and elements, can create and continuously improve knowledge enterprises by injecting new ideas, knowledge and organizational learning. Regions must incorporate the principles of knowledge creation and continuous learning to eventually become learning regions. According to the special characteristics of each region of Iran; Innovation has a different effect in each of these areas. To determine the extent of the impact of these systems, it is necessary to evaluate their performance. The authors of this study intend to provide a model for evaluation in accordance with the conditions of the regions in Iran. The proposed regional innovation system evaluation model consists of three levels, each of which evaluates regions from different perspectives. In such a way that the indicators presented in each level are complementary to other levels. In the first part of this research, the theoretical bases and researches conducted in this field are examined. In the following, by using the opinions of science and technology policy experts, the evaluation model and framework will be specified and the final model will be examined in Isfahan region.
 
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
"    Region" is one of the concepts that is the basic basis for economic policies in Europe as well as other parts of the world. Each region has its own set of main elements that the production system needs. Therefore, to achieve growth and development in the country, it is necessary to examine regional innovation systems.
It is noteworthy that regional innovation systems alone will not be able to compete in the global economy. Production systems play an important role at the regional level. Therefore, local enterprises should be connected to national and transnational innovation systems to the extent that regional innovation systems go beyond their borders during the process of economic integration and globalization.
The regional innovation system has been introduced in order to complete regional development theories and attitudes such as industrial poles, industrial clusters and industrial zones. All these theories and attitudes have been formed around one basic idea: the regional proximity and proximity of companies in a region ultimately leads to their growth and development.
There are different models and tools for evaluating and measuring regional innovation systems. The comparison of the models shows that most of them are used for their own conditions and cannot be applied in other countries of the world. Because they have not examined all the dimensions effective in regional innovation.
In the world, there is no uniform and specific method that can be used to analyze and evaluate the regional innovation system. Despite a significant amount of research on this topic; In the contemporary literature, there is no common understanding of the nature of the regional innovation system (RIS) as well as the performance evaluation system (Rodskaya and Rodionov, 2018).
Therefore, this research has tried to achieve its desired goals by examining the existing evaluation models and indicators to develop a new suitable framework for the conditions of Iran's regions. This research will present a conceptual model for evaluating the regional innovation system by examining the existing models, taking into account the conditions that originate from Iran's economic, political and social characteristics.
 
3- METHODOLOGY
       The current research seeks to answer the question that what dimensions, variables and indicators are included in the comprehensive evaluation model of the performance of regional innovation systems appropriate to Iran's context? Therefore, this research is exploratory-descriptive and practical in terms of its purpose, and its nature is quantitative-qualitative (mixed) and thematic analysis and fuzzy Delphi methods are used in it.
The current research is done in 2 stages:

Identifying the dimensions, components and evaluation indicators of the regional innovation system
Investigating the performance of the innovation system in Isfahan region.

 
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
      The extracted models from the literature were provided to experts through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to determine the order of placement of these indicators as well as the priority level of each of these sub-indices for a model suitable for Iran's regions.
After identifying the dimensions and initial determination of the model, the obtained model was evaluated by Delphi (4 steps).  
*Identified Common indicators include:
1- Infrastructures and fields of innovation
2- Labor market
3-Beliefs and Norms
4-Geographic location feature
5- Education
* Regional innovation potential was identified at 3 levels:
1-Technological potential
2- Personnel potential
3-Scientific potential
* Regional innovation performance was also investigated from two aspects:
1-Company performance
2-System performance
 
5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
In recent years, the regional innovation system has become the main priority of policy makers around the world. In Iran, the goal of 1401 is to increase the economic growth by 8%, for this reason, the role of innovative regions is showing more than before. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the regional innovation in it, which provides the road map to achieve the goal of economic growth. For this reason, this research intended to present a model for evaluating this innovation system and examine it in one of Iran's regions. Therefore, with the aim of identifying the regional innovation system, using existing literature and experts' opinions; A model with three levels: general indicators, innovation potential and innovation performance was obtained.

Keywords

• Regional Innovation System
• Performance Evaluation Model
• General Indicators
• Regional Potential
• Isfahan

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