Formations for regional innovation and institutional processes of actor integration: quo vadis Creta?

Abstract

The main scope of the present article comprises an analytical exploration of a peripheral island region (Crete) in terms of its regional innovation system. The latter is examined in congruence to the regional system of knowledge production and the co-evolving institutions facilitating its operation. The paper is organized around an analysis of the major components of the regional innovation system and their basic characteristics, while placing due emphasis on the role of institutional aspects. Notably, attention is paid to the level of institutional integration among the regional actors involved in setting the policy agenda and the impact these actors have on determining the relevant policy outcomes. Next to this, the paper goes on to assess the regionally embedded processes of scientific knowledge creation in terms of their repercussions on formulating a regional innovation policy that converses with local economic needs and imperatives. In this sense, it is argued that the deployment of an integrated institutional environment that accommodates actors" propensity towards cooperative arrangements consists a fundamental prerequisite for enhancing regional innovation capacity.