The 2010 Finnish National Innovation Strategy contains an important section on demand and user-driven innovation. In addition to considering scientific and technological development as an important source of innovation, the strategy also takes into account the growing role of other knowledge-based innovations and the related demand and user-orientation in the broadening innovation activity in the society.
New interesting titles on Asia’s innovation systems are presented in the catalogue “Innovation and Knowledge Management” by Edward Elgar publishing. Asia’s innovation system(s) is the main topic in the innovation and development section, and the success of Asian economies has made tempting to look for an Asian model of innovation.
The 2007 Index of Silicon Valley introduces the idea that “The World is Spiked” meaning that although the global competitive field is “flattening”1 regions still vary by their relative strengths and weaknesses from which regional specializations and comparative advantage emerge—creating “spikes” in a flat world.
The Local Innovation Systems Project is an international research partnership based at the Industrial Performance Center (IPC) of MIT. The project focuses on developing new insights into how regional capabilities can spur innovation and economic growth.
The paper of Ronald N. Kostoff, Rene Tshiteya, Christine A. Bowles, and Tuure Tuunanen The structure and infrastructure of Finnish research literature identifies four main research topics that describe the core knowledge competences of the Finnish innovation system: (1) Wireless Networks and Mobile Communication, (2) Signal Processing, (3) Materials Science and Engineering, and (4) Chemistry.
Regional innovation on the Internet is a district of websites dealing with this theme. The representation is based on the MapStan Search (http://search.mapstan.net/).
This recent book by Jorge Niosi is the first analysis of Canada’s regional innovation system and high technology agglomerations. According to the author, “regional innovation systems are evolutionary complex systems in which each group of agents reacts to the behaviour of others as well as to public policy incentives.