Profiling Regional Innovation Ecosystems as Functional Collaborative Systems: The Case of Cambridge

Abstract

Changing realities in innovation ecosystems challenge the next generation of development processes for innovation environments at all levels. According to findings in the most recent innovation studies, discussion on closed national innovation systems is rather artificial, while new scientific knowledge and technological inventions are generated in almost purely global settings (Hautamäki, 2008; Ishikura, 2006; Kao, 2007; Saxenian, 2006). The expanding collaboration in value networks brings innovation production closer to the marketplace, the pure technology-push approach is increasingly being complemented with a market-pull type needs analysis for penetrating a growing number of market segments, and a practically free movement of talented people brings down artificial national borders and provides a foundation for a creative transfer of knowledge between the interconnected innovation ecosystems. Regional innovation ecosystems are the core building blocks for innovation-creation activities from a national innovation policy point of view. They build on a local knowledge base and specialize in bringing out the best in their respective innovation processes. They focus on accumulating academic knowledge and combining it with private sector, market-driven commercialization processes. In most cases, these regional ecosystems are organized around a core-hub organization such as a science or technology park, or alternatively a regional cluster management office, where all the key coordination decisions are made. But, the innovation hub itself is necessarily a much wider concept than only a park or a coordination office. It consists of all the regional innovation ecosystem elements, starting from policies and ending with market-driven business activities.