Coevolution in Constructing Regional Advantage: Exploring the Multiple Roles of Lund University in S

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Co-evolution in Constructing Regional Advantage
Exploring the Multiple Roles of Lund University
in Strengthening the Scania Regional Innovation
System

• Björn Asheim, Paul Benneworth, Lars Coenen,
  Jerker Moodysson
• CIRCLE Centre for Innovation, Research and
  Competence in the Learning Economy, Lund
  University Sweden
• Department of Social and Economic Geography, Lund
  University, Sweden
• CURDS Centre for Urban and Regional Development
  Studies, University of Newcastle, UK

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From comparative to constructed advantage

• Comparative advantage criticized for dismissing
  the role of technological change and innovation
• Competitive advantage too narrowly institutional
  oriented by focusing on the creation of
  endogenous capacity of regions to learn and
  innovate by an interaction of markets and
  networks
• Constructed advantage acknowledges more the
  important interplay between industrial dynamics
  (knowledge bases) and organisational dynamics as
  well as private-public complementarities in
  policy making by a stronger focus on actors,
  agencies and governance forms in a multi-level
  perspective.

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Platform Policy

• The dilemma of regional innovation from
  imitation to innovative adaptation
• Industrial renewal takes place in-between and
  beyond existing sectors need for transcending
  traditional sector policies
• Innovation through combining existing knowledge,
  technologies and competencies with new generic
  technologies (IT, biotech)
• How to shape conditions for cross-fertilization?

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Platform Policy II

• Related variety creating spillover effects
• - Related variety related sectors in terms
  of shared or complementary knowledge bases
  and competences
• - specialisation of localisation economies
  diversity of urbanisation economies
• Differentiated knowledge bases
• - analytial ltgt synthetic ltgt symbolic
• Distributed knowledge networks
• - from internal knowledge within firms to
  distributed knowledge networks of firms across a
  range of technologies, industries and sectors in
  global value chains

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Sector characteristics and universities
institutional learning differentiated knowledge
bases (Asheim and Gertler, 2005)
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Platform policies Japans new cluster policy

• Ex Strengthening policies for advanced
  component/materials industries

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Regional Innovation Systems (RIS)?

• In Constructing Regional Advantage RIS is still
  important
• A RIS is constituted by two sub-systems and the
  systemic interaction between them (and with
  non-local actors and agencies)
• The knowledge generation and diffusing sub-system
  (universities, technical colleges, RD
  institutes, technology transfer agencies,
  business associations and finance institutions)
• The knowledge exploitation sub-system (firms in
  regional clusters as well as their support
  industries (customers and suppliers))

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Regional Innovation Systems
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Regional Innovation Policy
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Emerging trends

• Universities are increasingly seen as important
  actors for regional development in the knowledge
  economy
• Constructing regional advantage
• Actively upgrading and building regional
  innovation systems has become important
  objectives in regional development
• Universitys third mission
• As active contributors to regional innovative
  capacity by being actors in the knowledge
  generation subsystem of RIS

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The role of universities in RIS

• Third mission (after teaching and research)
  direct interaction between universities and
  society
• Creating high-tech firms
• Consulting for local industry
• Delivering advice for politicians
• Informing general public debates
• Knowledge economy discourse prevails
• Generative role discrete outputs in response to
  specific demands
• Developmental outputs development of regional
  institutional capacities (Gunesekara, 2006)

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Objective and reserach question

• To analyze and compare three mechanisms through
  which Lund University has contributed to Scanias
  RIS
• IDEON Science Park
• Life Science Cluster Medicon Valley
• VINNVÄXT support for the food sector Innovation
  i Gränsland (Food Innovation at Interfaces)
• How do different organizations and institutions
  in the RIS co-evolve over time when the
  university is faced with competing sectoral
  demands for regional engagement?

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Scania
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LU involvement in the regions industries
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ICT-From Ideon to a Regional Innovation System

• Ericsson (now Sony Ericsson) funded 20 staff in
  the early 1980s.
• IDEON, the first Science Park in Scandinavia,
  established 1983. LU was at this time foremost a
  supplier of human capital.
• Main challenge avoid lock in to the former
  industrial configuration, promote a dynamic ICT
  cluster.
• IDEON proved to be an important point of
  stability around which new ICT activities could
  emerge. LU deepened its engagement in regional
  policy.
• IDEON was an arena for concrete activity in which
  various regional partners where co-operating ? an
  institutional opening up process ? a more
  flexible RIS

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Life Science From Local Integration to Global
Visibility

• Long history of pharma and medtech in the region
  (Astra, Pharmacia, Gambro etc).
• Strong growth of biotech firms (DBFs) since early
  1990s (today 35 DBFs). Successful academic life
  science research. High quality health care.
• Medicon Valley Academy established in the mid
  1990s as an initiative by Lund and Copenhagen
  Universities to promote knowledge transfer
  between companies, universities and health care
  organisatoins in the region.
• Early enthusiasm has decreased. Global
  collaboration proved indispensable. MVA strategy
  was revised. Less focus on local integration,
  more on global visibility (e.g. attract VC and
  research funds, link up with other CoE etc).
• Other LU initiatives with similar rationale BMC,
  Stem Cell Centre, Swegene, SCIBLU

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Food From Process Streamlining to Innovation at
Interfaces

• Scania represents 45 of Swedens total food
  production but increasingly outsourced
• VINNVÄXT funding to stimulate a transition from
  price competition and economies of scale to
  quality competition and economies of scope
• Increase the added value and upgrade the
  innovative capacity by targeting new market
  opportunities
• A central role for Scania Food Innovation
  Network, a public-private cooperation in which LU
  is a leading member

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Food From Process Streamlining to Innovation at
Interfaces

• Food Innovation at Interfaces seeks to realise
  the potential of a latent innovation network
  between university and food industry
• Broad and interdisciplinary approach
• Food and Health Functional Food
• Convenience foods and logistics
• Marketing of Advanced food products
• IDEON Agro food technology transfer directly
  related to the food industry

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Conclusions

• Deepened contribution from provider of human
  capital to an orchestrator of regional innovation
  support
• Widening involvement through its national and
  international networks the university has
  extended the innovation network of regional
  actors
• Integrating various sectors innovativeness and
  competitiveness generated by related variety in
  the regional economy with the university as a
  core
• Increased activity-level and overlap between
  different innovation activities gt merging
  organizational units within the university (CoE)

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Multiple impacts of university engagement on
restructuring and strengthening the RIS