ABSTRACT
The key focus of the CURE project was to explore the interaction between regional and corporate cultures and the change processes resulting from this interaction. Through a multidisciplinary study spanning seven European regions, CURE investigated on the one hand how regional development is influenced by company cultures and, on the other hand, how companies are influenced by regional cultures. In addition a major strength of the methodology adopted was the disciplinary diversity across the research teams, incorporating regional science, philosophy, and industrial sociology. The chapter distinguishes between an analytical concept to explore existing regional innovation culture and a more political or idealistic agenda which highlights a process in which civic society should' be part of the regional innovation biography. The cohesion or structural policies of many European countries, the EU and the OECD have been aimed at creating balanced regional development and to reduce welfare and economic disparities.
