ABSTRACT
Today, strong interest is expressed by academics and practitioners in regional innovation systems, their similarities and differences in comparative perspective, and the extent and manner that these differences explain variation in regional advantage. This is a response to a paradoxical situation of local-regional selfhelp in the context of growing globalization of industry. As the boundaries between the global, national and local-regional blur, there is doubt about how much local-regional initiatives can enable regions to make their own history. There is also strong motivation for firms and governments to be innovative to enhance the region’s ability to meet uncertainties of structural change and to realign itself into a new competitive position.
