ABSTRACT
The evolutionary school has, over the last decades, provided a valid theoretical perspective which offers an integrated view for the processes of economic development, stressing the importance of institutions and organizations. This chapter draws on innovation systems literature with the aim of providing an interpretation on growth aspects, while integrating policy-oriented research into the field of innovation studies. Specifically, it attempts to examine institutional and policy methods for the enhancement of production and adoption of knowledge resources in the light of fostering capabilities and economic growth. The chapter contributes to the academic literature through the exploration of a regional innovation system in the Swedish region, Skåne, with a particular focus given to regional institutional and knowledge endowments and the role of innovation-supporting institutions and organizations. Throughout this chapter it is argued that innovation-supporting institutions and organizations are the key force in formulating a framework for technological advance, capabilities accumulation, and a region's resources development. Much of the institutional factors contributing to the agglomeration of innovation activity necessitate strategically robust innovation planning and policies enhancing key institutional endowments. In that respect, this chapter illustrates the path through which Skåne region has developed, in recent years, several regional institutional, policy, and organizational arrangements with the aim of formulating an integrated regional innovation system; in congruence to accumulated scientific and knowledge infrastructures.
