The new wave of regional innovation networks: Analysis, characteristics and strategy

Today, the number one priority for competitive advantage is innovation. A new approach to regional business development has been pioneered in Europe and the U.S.A. This involves building a regional innovation infrastructure. Learning through ''networking'' has proven to be a successful approach in some of Europe's more dynamic regional economics such as Baden-Wurttembeg and Emilia-Romagna. This involves maximising the complete range of regional innovation assets. The state of Pennsylvania and other older industry centres are showing that such an approach is transferable from Europe to the U.S.A. The paper assesses knowledge-transfer at the regional level and outlines the key elements for successful regional innovation networking practices. The major finding(s) are that business networking is an effective way of increasing company turnover; that not-for-profit organizations are excellent for setting up networks because they are trusted, and that innovation networks are perhaps the most difficult, thought-requiring but important of the types of business network conceivable.