Regional innovation systems and sustainability - selected examples of international discussion

A more systemic design of regional processes of development and learning has gradually gained importance in institutions for national as well as European promotion of research and innovation in the course of the nineties. Core concepts in this policy field are the normative vision of Sustainable Development and regional innovations systems as an organisational support structure. With reference to case study research in Upper Austria, Germany (Northern Hesse) and the USA (Silicon Valley) the sustainability of newer systemic approaches for the regional support of innovations is discussed in this paper. The summary of this discussion is used to suggest a typology of regions which is helpful to develop further research designs and policy concepts for regional innovation support. Visions, as concrete as possible, promoters and only partly formalised private-public transfer networks should be-according to the most important case study results-key components therefore in the future. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.