Regional innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems: their value added to rethinking regional development policies

Advances on the understanding the innovation process and phenomenon, principally coming from the regional innovation systems approach and from the theorization around the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems, have given an impulse to entrepreneurship promotion. The aim of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand, the first objective is to contextualize and clarify the concepts of regional innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems that have been gaining a growing importance in terms of regional policy. It will also address their differences and complementarities, proposing an analytical filter to enhance their understanding, both theoretically and operationally. The second objective is to formulate a set of recommendations about the role both concepts bring to local and regional development strategies, opening the way for a set of public policy interventions.