Periodic Reporting for period 4 - TechEvo (Technology Evolution in Regional Economies)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-09-01 do 2023-02-28
The creation and accumulation of knowledge are processes at the heart of technological change, economic growth and prosperity. Attention has been directed at aggregate measures of knowledge production in regional and national contexts, but little consideration has been given to the properties, heterogenous nature, and multi-dimensional aspects of knowledge produced in specific places. This leaves open numerous key questions including: How does the nature of knowledge that is produced vary over space, what conditions the scope of scientific and technological advances generated in different locations, and how do these knowledge sets impact the performance of local firms and industries? To date, the way in which specific regional knowledge capabilities influence the evolution of local technology trajectories and thus shape geographies of economic prosperity have not yet been considered systematically.
The objective of TechEvo is to fill this significant research gap by investigating the long-term evolution of knowledge creation in European regions from 1981 to the present. Questions concerning the production, application and diffusion of knowledge are at the centre of the innovation and economic growth literatures and thus novel insights into how the actual type of knowledge produced within specific places shapes the innovative capacity of a locality, and its future technological prospects, are urgently needed. Grounded in the framework of evolutionary economics and the evolutionary economic geography literatures, TechEvo offers ground-breaking insights into how innovative entities and individual inventors and scientists are embedded in social and cognitive local and non-local networks, and how regional knowledge trajectories are shaped through entry, exit, and selection processes. Furthermore, the project develops theories, methods and empirics that significantly advance existing work, push the scientific frontier of innovation research, and deliver a science and technology policy evaluation tool capable of assessing impact.
The objective of TechEvo is to fill this significant research gap by investigating the long-term evolution of knowledge creation in European regions from 1981 to the present. Questions concerning the production, application and diffusion of knowledge are at the centre of the innovation and economic growth literatures and thus novel insights into how the actual type of knowledge produced within specific places shapes the innovative capacity of a locality, and its future technological prospects, are urgently needed. Grounded in the framework of evolutionary economics and the evolutionary economic geography literatures, TechEvo offers ground-breaking insights into how innovative entities and individual inventors and scientists are embedded in social and cognitive local and non-local networks, and how regional knowledge trajectories are shaped through entry, exit, and selection processes. Furthermore, the project develops theories, methods and empirics that significantly advance existing work, push the scientific frontier of innovation research, and deliver a science and technology policy evaluation tool capable of assessing impact.
The ERC Technology Evolution in Regional Economies (TechEvo) project has produced 18 peer-reviewed publications, a further 5 manuscripts that are currently undergoing the review process, and yet another 2 papers which are currently in a draft version. The collection of 25 manuscripts are the result of all the work that has been performed by the entire TechEvo team over the past years. In particular, it was especially the work pertaining to the initial TechEvo work package that aimed to compile an advanced regional database of scientific, technical and commercial knowledge production, and which subsequently enabled the team to pursue all the overarching objectives and specific goals:
• to deliver empirics for theoretical advancement in Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG); and
• to provide insights into the critical aspects and dynamics of place specific features and network properties, which have the potential to enhance or re-direct regional evolutionary knowledge trajectories that are bound for economic down-turn.
The vast majority of work performed from the beginning to the end of the project centred around the collection, organisation and further processing of advanced data concerning knowledge production, in parallel tasks concerned with the regionalisation, disambiguation, and harmonisation of these data, and finally also on tasks related to linking various datasets into an overall database structure. As envisioned, the development of the TechEvo database which in turn facilitated a) the development of highly advanced empirical investigations, and b) to enhance, but also develop new, EEG related theories and methods.
In the later stage of the project a series of manuscripts that are highly policy-relevant regarding the advancement of future EU Smart Specialisation Strategies were developed. In parallel, the team also spent a significant amount of time to develop the prototype of the proposed online analysis tool capable of identifying gaps and opportunities for technology evolution in regional economies.
Finally, a significant effort and thus time commitment was directed towards dissemination and outreach activities; including events where policy-makers and practitioners participated. In addition, a number of TechEvo workshops and mini-conferences were organised to further support dissemination and collaboration efforts. Overall, all the work that was performed has resulted in a collection of tangible outputs that go well beyond the originally proposed list of deliverables.
• to deliver empirics for theoretical advancement in Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG); and
• to provide insights into the critical aspects and dynamics of place specific features and network properties, which have the potential to enhance or re-direct regional evolutionary knowledge trajectories that are bound for economic down-turn.
The vast majority of work performed from the beginning to the end of the project centred around the collection, organisation and further processing of advanced data concerning knowledge production, in parallel tasks concerned with the regionalisation, disambiguation, and harmonisation of these data, and finally also on tasks related to linking various datasets into an overall database structure. As envisioned, the development of the TechEvo database which in turn facilitated a) the development of highly advanced empirical investigations, and b) to enhance, but also develop new, EEG related theories and methods.
In the later stage of the project a series of manuscripts that are highly policy-relevant regarding the advancement of future EU Smart Specialisation Strategies were developed. In parallel, the team also spent a significant amount of time to develop the prototype of the proposed online analysis tool capable of identifying gaps and opportunities for technology evolution in regional economies.
Finally, a significant effort and thus time commitment was directed towards dissemination and outreach activities; including events where policy-makers and practitioners participated. In addition, a number of TechEvo workshops and mini-conferences were organised to further support dissemination and collaboration efforts. Overall, all the work that was performed has resulted in a collection of tangible outputs that go well beyond the originally proposed list of deliverables.
The scientific goal of TechEvo was to undertake a comprehensive investigation of why regions enter and exit scientific and technological knowledge domains based on their past activities (path-dependency), their regional characteristics (place-dependency), and their embeddedness in regional, national and international networks. Further, TechEvo promised to develop new theoretical understandings that take into consideration previously overlooked factors and relationships in the study of regional innovation systems and technology evolution, and, simultaneously, to contribute to theoretical discussions elsewhere that have lacked empirical evidence, as well as to provide an online evaluation and planning tool for practical use to inform policy-makers in their quest to craft successful regional Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3).
The project has delivered on all these promises, and to some extent even significantly succeeded in these. The 18 already published manuscripts significantly advance the current state-of-the-art in this line of inquiry and have produced an array of contributions regarding theoretical, methodological, empirical, and practical (i.e. policy-relevant) advancements to the field of Evolutionary Economic Geography, and beyond. TechEvo has proven to be scientifically critical, conceptually innovative, and economically advantageous due to its far-reaching and all-inclusive approach that considered the heterogenous regional landscape that presents itself in the pan-European space.
The TechEvo core methodology, i.e. the “knowledge space” methodology, has established itself as a sound and widely applied empirical tool capable of assessing regional knowledge (scientific & technical) capabilities leading to future growth opportunities, which in turn is much needed for the more effective regional development and innovation policy instruments. TechEvo also provided a number of additional methodological advancements that are well beyond the current state-of-the-art, e.g. the concept of “knowledge entry-potential” (Kogler et al., 2022).
TechEvo also produced a number of highly relevant theoretical contributions, including an overview and discussion of the widely applied relatedness concept (Whittle and Kogler, 2019), and a contribution that highlights how evolutionary approaches to regional development can be improved upon with progressive empirical strategies (Kedron et al., 2020). Finally, TechEvo also contributed to current debates, e.g. on Artificial Intelligence (Buarque et al., 2020; Kogler et al., 2022). In summary, TechEvo insights and theoretical and empirical advancements are revolutionising the way regional innovation systems are analysed, and subsequently how strategies and policies utilise regional science-technology and innovation indicators in the development of more effective policy interventions.
The project has delivered on all these promises, and to some extent even significantly succeeded in these. The 18 already published manuscripts significantly advance the current state-of-the-art in this line of inquiry and have produced an array of contributions regarding theoretical, methodological, empirical, and practical (i.e. policy-relevant) advancements to the field of Evolutionary Economic Geography, and beyond. TechEvo has proven to be scientifically critical, conceptually innovative, and economically advantageous due to its far-reaching and all-inclusive approach that considered the heterogenous regional landscape that presents itself in the pan-European space.
The TechEvo core methodology, i.e. the “knowledge space” methodology, has established itself as a sound and widely applied empirical tool capable of assessing regional knowledge (scientific & technical) capabilities leading to future growth opportunities, which in turn is much needed for the more effective regional development and innovation policy instruments. TechEvo also provided a number of additional methodological advancements that are well beyond the current state-of-the-art, e.g. the concept of “knowledge entry-potential” (Kogler et al., 2022).
TechEvo also produced a number of highly relevant theoretical contributions, including an overview and discussion of the widely applied relatedness concept (Whittle and Kogler, 2019), and a contribution that highlights how evolutionary approaches to regional development can be improved upon with progressive empirical strategies (Kedron et al., 2020). Finally, TechEvo also contributed to current debates, e.g. on Artificial Intelligence (Buarque et al., 2020; Kogler et al., 2022). In summary, TechEvo insights and theoretical and empirical advancements are revolutionising the way regional innovation systems are analysed, and subsequently how strategies and policies utilise regional science-technology and innovation indicators in the development of more effective policy interventions.