1. International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation - Strengthening the Regional Innovation Profile -
Bremen
16-17 October 2003

2. Indicators for Regional Innovation Performance
Fabienne Corvers
European Commission
DG Research

3. Towards the knowledge-based economy
ERA (2000): European Research Area
Lisbon European Council (2000): vision ‘Europe to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge- based economy in the world by 2010’
Barcelona European Council (2002): target ‘3% GDP average investment in R&D by 2010’ and ‘2/3 financed by business, 1/3 financed by government’
: RTDI top priority for EU

4. The European Research Area
New vision for European research
Avoid 15 (25) + 1 policy framework
Reduce fragmentation of effort
Improve use of scarce resources
Important role for regions
Message: need to pay more attention to regional actors and factors within EU and MS research policy
Role for regions: bridging the gap between knowledge creators and knowledge users in each region
Starting point: identification of regional needs

5. Theoretical background
New Economic Geography
Source: Koschatzky, 2003

6. Macro level: National innovation systems, ‘learning economy’: impacts of national institutional fabric on innovation processes and on the competitiveness of firms
Meso level: regional innovation systems, learning regions: argue with governance structures/MLG relationships; public vs private, old vs new economy innovation systems
Micro level: different cluster, network and milieu-oriented approaches: spatial proximity, external effects, knowledge spillovers, culture and identity, embeddedness

7. Innovation is an interactive process
The Chain-Linked Model of Innovation by Kline and Rosenberg, 1986

8. The innovation system model: a heuristic tool
Framework Conditions
Financial environment; taxation and incentives; propensity to innovation and entrepreneurship; mobility ...
Education and Research System
Professional education and training
Higher education and research
Public sector research
Industrial System
Large companies
Mature SMEs
New, technology- based firms
Intermediaries
Research institutes
Brokers
Consumers (final demand)
Producers (intermediate demand)
Demand
Banking, venture capital
IPR and information
Innovation and business support
Standards and norms
Infrastructure
Political System
Government
Governance
RTD policies
The potential reach of public policies ...
Source: Technopolis 2000, modified and extended by S. Kuhlmann, 2003

9. Regional innovation system
Science sector/
Technology
supply
innovation
systems
national and supranational
Universities
Engineering
Research facilities
Economic services
TT Institutions
Innovation
Policies
Financial support
services
Technology-related
information and training
Regional policies
Networking
Consultancy
National/international
policies
between
the
Venture capital
different elements of
Technology centres/
Infrastructure
science parks
the regional
Customers
Industrial base
Technical
innovation
Suppliers
infrastructures
system
Competitors
Potential and actual educational
level of the workforce
Sub-contractors
Sectoral/ Technological
Quality of living
Cooperation
Regional
environment
partners
"Milieu" or
environment
R&D
Inter-
firms
"innovative culture"
innovation
systems
relations
Investments
Firm's branch
Employee
and size
qualification
Firms'
R&D efforts
Source: Koschatzky, 2003

10. Regional RTDI Indicators
powerful policy tool
Emphasis on input indicators
R&D expenditures by institutional sector
R&D personnel by institutional sector
Some output indicators
Patent and high tech patent applications
Employment in high tech sectors

11. More output indicators needed
Innovation expenditure as a percentage of turnover
Increase in market share due to new/improved products or introduction of new/improved processes
changes in labour productivity over the past 5 years
Even more process indicators needed
Linkages between knowledge creators and knowledge users within region (university-industry)
Linkages of regional knowledge creators and users with those outside region (mobility, joint projects)

12. Advantages and Disadvantages
Input/Output indicators:
Components of regional innovation system
Focus on capacities in terms of resource endowment (‘knowledge stocks’)
Criticism: static view of the region
Regional data: available and EU-wide comparable
Process indicators:
Interfaces between components of RIS as well as between RIS and external world (‘knowledge flows’)
Idea: quality of interfaces determines innovative capabilities of system (dynamic view)
Limited availability of (EU-wide comparable) data

13. Four dimensions to measure the performance of innovation system
Research capacity:
proportion of scientists and engineers (S&E) in the workforce; public investment in R&D (GOVERD and HERD); number of scientific publications produced per capita
Social and Human capital:
percentage of GDP spent on education; percentage of working population with third-level qualifications; the degree of participation in life-long learning

14. Technological and innovative performance:
amount of R&D performed by industry (BERD as a % of GDP); number of patents per capita; innovation expenditure as % sales
Absorption capacity:
capacity of firms to renew product ranges; improvements in labour productivity; overall trade performance

15. Source: Soete et al. 2001

16. Possibilities with regional RTDI indicators
Single dimension
Top 10 of ...
Matrix of two dimensions, e.g.
regional GDP and R&D expenditure (GERD)
R&D investments (GERD) and R&D performance (patents)
R&D expenditures by institutional sector and source of funding by institutional sector
More than 2 dimensions:
single index and composite indicator

17. Combining RTDI indicators with other regionalised indicators, e.g.
share of total employment in agriculture
share of youth unemployment
share of highly qualified people on labour market
Develop new indicators and design data collection methods (survey, expert panels, interviews, …)
To measure quality of intra-RIS linkages
To measure extent and nature of extra-RIS linkages (trade, import of equipment, foreign investments in region, investments by regional firms abroad, …)

18. Source: FhG-ISI, 1995

19. More information
Third European Report on Science and Technology Indicators ‘Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy’
Communication on the Regional Dimension of the European Research Area adopted on
europa.eu.int/comm/research/press/2001/pr0410en.html
ERA-NET Scheme
EUROSTAT