The strategies applied to bridge this technology gap and improve the research, technology and innovation capability of the EU's less developed regions were oriented along three distinct axes: (1) the creation of technology poles in peripheral areas, (2) support for research and technology supply infrastructure, and (3) the identification of the structural factors behind the technology deficit and the support of the regional systems of innovation.
The " technology poles strategy" was implemented on a broad scale in the 1980s with the development of large technology parks and various "technopolis" programmes. In its fullest form, this strategy combines interventions in three domains: (1) interventions in the technology supply system and the technology transfer mechanisms, (2) interventions in the industrial system with the development of high-tech firms and local linkages, and (3) interventions in the infrastructure with the qualitative up-grading of the environment and organisation of spaces for business services. In a peripheral region, the technology pole starts out as a distinct «pocket», which may be created by the market or by the state or by the local community. It is usually the result of the modernisation of established businesses, the up-grading of local branch plants of multinational corporations, the establishment or relocation of government research and technology institutes, or the attraction of high-tech firms. At the same time, the new pole fosters the development of networks and collaboration among existing firms, both on the economic level between producer and supplier, and on the level of communications and information technology infrastructure. In many peripheral regions, such technology poles have drastically altered the character of economic activities and ushered these areas into a new development trajectory.
Support for technology infrastructure is a supplementary strategy which found expression in the creation of research institutes and technology centres in many in Europe's less developed regions. This strategy focuses on the supply side of technology, adopting a «linear model of innovation», in which a region's innovative activity is taken to be a direct function of its research and development capability. This false equivalence between innovation and research significantly limited the multiplier effect of this strategy and created the prerequisites for a more complex approach to dealing with the technology gap.
The support of a regional innovation systems initially attempted to bring to the surface the main factors behind the region's technology deficit: the archaic character of its small and medium-sized businesses, the inadequacies of its mechanisms for the diffusion of technology and, first and foremost, the latent demand for technology and innovation services. It adopts a more integrated way of dealing with innovation, a systemic model of interaction between technology supply and demand, and a concept of innovation as a function of research, inventiveness and commercial exploitation. The basic difference between this strategy and the strategy of technology poles is in the promotion of a more decentralised regional innovation system, which exploit the existing industrial and research capability of the region, as well as the emphasis of the demand side of the innovation process.
This then is the orientation of the Central Macedonia RTP. Its strategy combines an in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the regional innovation system, a wide-scale political support, and the promotion of projects fostering the innovative capacity and competitiveness of Central Macedonia's businesses. The strategy combines also the attraction and adoption of technology developments that have taken place in other regions or, and more importantly, the up-grading of the technological capacity of the target area's businesses and research centres. In any case, all the three mentioned strategies do overlap in many areas, and are all part of the general family of regional policies promoting development through support for the region's research, technology and innovation capacity.
Local framework: re-industrialisation in Northern Greece
In the 1980s, the quantitative figures on the evolution of employment and GNP in Greece showed a triple fragmentation of the country, into areas of stagnation in Central and Southern Greece, dynamic areas in the islands of the Ionian and the Aegean, and dynamic industrial areas in Northern Greece.The dynamism of Northern Greece is determined by a number of specific characteristics, of which most important are:
- The overwhelming presence of the traditional industrial activities: The branches on which the development dynamic of the Region was based were the traditional ones of consumer goods, foods, beverages, textiles, clothing and footwear. Companies in these branches were oriented towards exports and competed in European markets on the basis of price rather than product quality.
- The determining role of the larger companies and the leaders in each branch: The large companies constitute the dynamic central trunk of the regional productive system. Their strategy is more universal, with a greater degree of involvement in the global economic cycle from production and inter-company relations to products and sales. They are more profitable on average than smaller companies, are better equipped, invest more in R&D and marketing, are less labour-intensive. They develop more forms of collaborative production and networks (local and international agreements, sub-contracting schemes, joint product development, investments in other countries). They are more export-oriented, particularly towards the EU, and are more active in international markets. Strategies involving brand names, advertising and sales promotions are also practised mainly by the larger companies. The contrast between large and small companies is striking. On all levels, from company profile to product development, from production processes to employment strategies, the small companies are more old-fashioned, less aware of contemporary restructuring questions, less internationalised, less informed about the economic environment, less innovative. Small companies in Northern Greece are traditional, low profile companies, rather than small flexible enterprises active in creative networks and multi-level agreements. They have neither the profile and the flexible niche strategy, nor the capacity for innovation, export-oriented production, or regional alliances.
- The predominance of process technologies linked to fixed equipment and the sphere of production: This immediately leads to low levels of R&D, which in most instances is incorporated in the purchase price of the equipment. As there has been no radical transformation of products, competitiveness is concentrated in low production costs. The restrictions of a largely unqualified labour market are substantially overcome by importing technological equipment and highly automated systems. Textile plants, for example, are as up-to-date as anywhere else in the EU.
Furthermore, the in-depth study of technology supply and demand carried out by means of technology audits, experts' reports and company meetings, enabled us to note certain additional characteristics of the technology structure in Central Macedonia.
The principal characteristic of business and industrial technology demand is that it is covered by external sources:
The purchase of technology, as an adjunct to equipment or by licensing, is the chief means by which enterprises acquire new technology.
The development of in-house R&D departments is limited.
Technology collaboration between enterprises or between enterprises and research centres is limited. Equally limited is the participation of enterprises in research programmes aimed at developing new technologies.
Our findings confirmed the importance of horizontal technologies in technology demand; this involves access to information on research results and applications in such fields as product quality, automation, industrial informatics and environmental protection.
The principal characteristic of technology supply is that besides the large number of laboratories and research centres are involved, there is little correlation between their work and the problems faced by enterprises.
The provision of technology services is mainly concentrated on the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and is fragmented into a large number of research laboratories.
The overall organisation of technology services is not clear, and many entrepreneurs think that information about and access to such services is difficult.
Interest expressed by enterprises in the research activities carried out by the laboratories and their possible applications is limited.
The number of laboratories which transfer technology to enterprises is minimal.
There are no competence poles, especially in technologies with a broad range of applications.
These findings permit us to state that technology transfer constitutes the number one problem in Central Macedonia's technology and innovation capacity: on the one hand, companies cover their technology requirements by turning to external sources and, on the other hand, the external sources which are active in the Region do not take into consideration the needs and the problems of local businesses. The fact that industry and research are so out of step limits both the quantity and the quality of the technology services that are available to companies, given that they lack both in-house technology capacity and external input from their immediate environment.
Priorities for innovation support in Central Macedonia
On the basis of the above conclusion concerning the regional industrialisation processes and the characteristics of regional technology demand and supply, a number of strategic orientations and priorities may be defined for the Regional Technology Plan, such as.To increase the resources available to companies for research and technology. This priority focuses on the low level of business R&D expenditure in Central Macedonia. It is related to financing innovation, as well as to the composition of the labour force, their qualifications and specialisation, and the numbers of engineers and researchers in industrial employment. Actions which might improve the levels of industrial technology and innovation in this Region's companies include the financing for in-house R&D, for production and product modernisation, and the creation of support mechanisms to facilitate the financing of companies by risk capital.
To increase the technology capacity of the work force: This priority is dictated by the heavy dependence on standard equipment for technology input. The weakness of this technology trajectory is that it restricts the capacity for innovation, as the solutions applied are those already applied in other Regions. Furthermore, it reduces the complementarity of suppliers and users since the geographical distances involved create problems in the application and maintenance of the technologies. Actions which might improve the technological capacity of the work force in Central Macedonia companies include company staff training in horizontal technologies, executive training in innovation management, tele-training programmes and events supporting the culture for innovation.
To improve company access to external technology sources: This is an important priority for technology development in Central Macedonia, to the extent that companies in this Region obtain their technology from external sources: by purchase, through relations with other companies, through collaboration with universities, technical colleges and research centres. Company access to suppliers of technology, and the resulting transfer of technology, is usually distinguished as either interfirm technology exchange or technology dissemination through collaboration between companies and research centres. In addition, access to external technology sources is facilitated by attracting technology intensive activities to a Region, such as company R&D departments, high technology firms, research foundations and institutes. The three above areas are fertile terrain for the development of individual actions in support of technology transfer and access to external technology sources.
To reinforce the endogenous technology supply: This priority is dictated by the low local supply of technology services and products in sectors where demand is evident: industrial information technology, automation, energy and friendly environmental technologies, and quality control technologies. A second problem in this area is the fragmentation of research work among numerous and independent laboratories, without horizontal connections and an integrated structure of competence poles. The integration and industrial specialisation of the technology services supply market could be enhanced by the creation of consortia and networks of laboratories in various technology fields, as well as by the co-operation between research units and supplier firms in respective technology areas.
These priority areas are defined with respect to analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the regional innovation system in C. Macedonia. A further enrichment of the priorities was introduced by the public discussion on the RTP projects and the related technology demand investigation.
