Organising Regional Innovation Support : Sweden's Industrial Development Centres as Regional Development Coalitions

Abstract: This PhD dissertation examines the issues of institutional and policy learning often referred to in discussions about innovation policy in the literature on economic geography of innovation, systems of innovation, and learning regions. A central argument is that in order to enhance OUTknowledge of this learning dimension in innovation policy we need to focus on the level at which much innovation policy is organised and implemented, i.e. the organisationai leve!. Thus, this study focuses on the development of innovation support organisations (ISOs) based on partnerships among regional aetors, incuding both private and public ones.Theoretically, the study focuses on the concept of (regional) development coalitions. This concept is elaborated and explored through the development of an analytical model focusing on the organisational learning capabilities of ISOs. The model focuses on these organisations' knowledge, communication, and action capabilities and seeks to deterrnine whether they will support adaptive or developmental learning. The analysis thus leads to an assessment of whether the ISOs are able to provide for present and future needs of the regional fmns and thereby the ISOs' potential to develop and transforrn the regional economy. The analysis also seeks to explain the specific character of the organisational capabilities that parti cul ar ISOs have developed. Here, a distinction has been made between internaI factors, incuding organisationai strategy, organisationai structure, and organisationaI culture, and external factors, encompassing the power structures prevalent in the industriaI structure of the region and reflected in both its industriaI culture and its industrial policy traditions. The national institutionai framework goveming the ISOs is also discussed.Empirically, the study deals with Sweden's Industrial Development Centres (IDCs). An indepth examination of two cases shows that the development of these innovation support organisations is influenced to a large extent by their regional socio-cultural and institutional contexts. However, the findings also indicate that innovation support organisations like the IDCs can, under certain conditions, develop reflexive learning capabilities that will enable them to counteract regional and organisationaI path dependencies that might otherwise lead to the 'lock-in' of aiready established trajectories in tecbnological and economic development.