Over the course of the last decade, increasing political emphasis has been placed on the 'third role' of universities and universities of applied sciences in German higher education policy, i.e. to these institutions socio-economic contribution their regional environment. Against this background...

This paper addressed the need for research regarding the role of associations in innovation systems. As defined here, the term association embraces not only organisations like business associations, but all actors who associate to pursue joint objectives and positively influence their (regional)...

The empirical sub-sections of this article have shown that the both production and technology oriented clusters are a very diverse and regionally embedded phenomenon. Within this context, the observed diversity of political strategies and support measures whose ultimate goal is to 'generate...

As next to all aspects of research are becoming internationalised at a more and more rapid pace the need for the creation of transnational research infrastructures can no longer be seen as limited to certain fields of natural sciences. Against the background, new policies have been launched with...

The innovation system approach has become a current and frequently used tool for the assessment of innovative activities in different fields of study. So far, however, there is no unanimous agreement on the issue of the most relevant perspective which has to be taken when applying the approach...

Taking the most popular regional RTDI policy concepts, particularly the network para-digm (Cooke/Morgan 1993) as a starting point, it is the objective of this paper to theo-retically and empirically discuss the necessity and impact of regional or regionalised RTDI policy measures within the...

A key feature of the knowledge-based economy is a remarkable increase in the number, foundation rates, and employees of knowledge-intensive business service firms (KIBS). KIBS are knowledge-intensive, in the sense that they are founded upon highly specialised knowledge. Based on the assumption...

Taking the implications of the cohesion policy framework for innovation governance as a starting point, it is the objective of this paper to discuss challenges for regional policy making with regard to a policy mix that is new to regional policy makers. Based on two German regions representing...

The shift to new forms of knowledge creation reflects a remarkable increase in the number of knowledge-intensive business service firms (KIBS). KIBS are believed to be one of the main drivers of technological change and economic progress and can be described as users, carriers and sources of...