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Journal of Competitiveness

Innovation Paradox and Regional Innovation Strategies

Skokan Karel

Keywords:
innovation system, innovation paradox, regional innovation strateg y

Abstract:
Competitiveness of firms, regions and countries is determined by the level of productivity with which they use allocated resources. A key factor for the growth in productivity is innovation. Contemporary approach to innovation is based on the theory of innovation systems, and it argues that, firms do not innovate in isolation but interact with other participants of the innovation process. The systems approach views the ability of an economic system to innovate as one of the key determinants of economic performance. It also explains the differences in economic performance between countries and regions as a result of the low level of innovation activities. The persistence of regional differences can be explained by the innovation paradox. The regional innovation paradox explains that, there is a greater need to invest in innovation in less developed regions, but there is a relatively smaller capacity of these areas to absorb public funds set aside for innovation. This is in contrast with the situation in already developed areas where public funding is more easily absorbed and has a greater probability of success. The solution to this paradox seems to be in a regional innovation strategies which the European Commission launched in the ninetieth of the last century. This paper is in twofold. In the theoretical part, the paper explains the principles of innovation systems and regional innovation paradox based on contemporary literature. In the second part of the paper, we analyse the EU approach to regional innovation strategies as well as its development in Czech Republic in the last decade. The study concludes that, the formal documentation of regional development strategy without proper implementation and monitoring cannot become a necessary condition for the effectiveness of regional innovation systems.

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Journal of Competitiveness

  

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ISSN 1804-171X (Print); eISSN 1804-1728 (On-line)


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The journal offers access to the contents in the open access system on the principles license Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0).