Regional Innovation Policies Compared

Abstract

Regional policy and technology policy increasingly converge into regional innovation policies in the Europe of regions. The comparison of technology-transfer networks in the German regions Baden-Württemberg and the Ruhr with the British region of the North East of England, makes clear that national political settings determine the political and financial power which regions have to devise their own policies. The region with the largest political autonomy, Baden-Württemberg, creates the most transparent technology-transfer network. In the North East of England, both regionally based organisations and initiatives from the central government emerged at the same time. This caused a considerable overlap between activities of 'economic development industry' and a lack of co-ordination.