ABSTRACT
Innovations and technical progress are becoming topics of growing interest for policy-makers wishing to promote economic growth. 1 Cooke and Memedovic explain:
that the economic growth and competitiveness of their regions depends largely on the capacity of indigenous firms to innovate, offering the appropriate support to these indigenous firms to be more competitive through innovation is a rising star on the regional policy agenda.
(Cooke and Memedovic, 2003: 8)