ABSTRACT

The chapter aims to contribute to better understanding of links between entrepreneurial discovery processes and regional industrial growth. This is achieved by examining (1) how different regional contexts, conceptualised as different types of regional innovation systems, affect entrepreneurial discovery processes, and (2) how entrepreneurial discoveries support specific types of industrial path development in different regions. The chapter includes empirical studies of the formation and growth of three ‘official’ regional clusters supported by Innovation Norway’s programme for immature clusters. The chapter argues that entrepreneurial discoveries should be institutionalised by the activities of system-level entrepreneurs in order to achieve considerable regional industrial effects in the form of new or transformed industries in a region. In our cases institutionalisation occurs through the creation of cluster organisations and development of the knowledge infrastructure.