The Role of Innovation in Regional Development in Greece
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MASTER THESIS THE ROLE OF INNOVATION IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN GREECE POSING A GREEK CASE STUDY BETWEEN THE DEBATE OF PLACE- BASED VS SPATIAL BLIND POLICIES BY THEODOROS SOUKOS SUPERVISOR PHILIP MCCANN UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN FACULTY OF SPATIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH MASTER IN REGIONAL STUDIES: SPACES AND PLACES, ANALYSIS AND INTERVENTION MASTER THESIS THE ROLE OF INNOVATION IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN GREECE POSING A GREEK CASE STUDY BETWEEN THE DEBATE OF PLACE-BASED VS SPATIAL BLIND POLICIES BY THEODOROS SOUKOS ST. NUMBER: 2351366 SUPERVISOR PHILIP MCCANN GRONINGEN, AUGUST 2014 2 ABSTRACT The role of innovation in regional economic development attracts increasingly the interest of public policies. Especially among the regions of the EU, the innovation policy and its relation to the cohesion policy framework gather much of this interest. This master thesis examines the role of innovation policy in regional development of a particular case study region in Greece. In order to investigate this role, the master thesis draws a special attention into the debate between the spatial blind policy argument (World Bank) and the place-based policy argument (OECD) and their policy implications. The review of the theory and the policy debate provides the most important insights for guidance of this research. In the first stage of this research, the investigation of prominent documents and studies on innovation performance of Greece, Greek regions and the region of Attica in particular highlights some key policy areas for consideration. The second stage of this research is devoted to interviews with policy experts with respect to innovation. The results of the interviews were extracted through the framework analysis approach to qualitative research. After all the most important conclusions show that the role of innovation policy in regional development in the region of Attica is important though not simple. The several dimensions through which innovation policy was analyzed indicate that (1) there is a need for a clear and distinguishable dimension of innovation policy in the regional level, (2) a distinct philosophy and character of the policy (place-specific vs. centralized) will determine its final efficiency, (3) the contribution of smart specialization has catalytically impacted the new policy design, (4) the governance issues are of major importance due to the large number of actors present in the region and (5) the severe socioeconomic condition of the region has to be taken into consideration in the new regional innovation policy. Key words: Innovation policy, Smart Specialisation, regional development, spatial blind, place-based policy, Greece, region of Attica 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For me this is one of the most difficult parts of a master thesis. It is the part that you realize that a massive effort is in its end. It is the moment that you need to digest the material you dealt with. It is also the time that you have to remember all the persons who helped you the most for your achievements. Firstly, I want to express my gratitude to my mentor and supervisor Philip McCann. Dear Philip I want to thank you for your support in the REMA in Regional Studies. During the two years of this master programme you were always there to hear my problems, discuss my concerns, always give me useful advice to face my difficulties and finally supervise me both in my Individual Research Training and my Master Thesis. Mostly, I would like to thank you because you taught me how to think and act as a researcher. In parallel, I would like to express my best acknowledgements to all the members of the REMA programme team and the professors I cooperated with for your contribution to my research interests and skills. Secondly, I would like to thank my parents, my uncles and my grandmothers for the unconditional love and help that they provided to me. All of you played an important role to the development of my personality and I will always be grateful for this. In addition, I want to express my thanks to some important persons of my life. I want to thank my partner Vasiliki Tsafka- Tsotskou for her support. She was continuously nearby both in good and difficult times. I know that I cannot express what I feel for you, but I really want to thank you Vasia. Furthermore, I want to thank my best friends Manolis and Spyros. Special gratitude should be addressed to all the friends that I made during my studies in Groningen. Many thanks to all of you guys because we spend together some moments that will be deep in my memory for my entire life. Finally, I want to devote some words for the persons who participated in my research. Hence, I want to thank all my interviewees for their significant help, their willingness to answer my questions and their advices. Last but not least I have to thank the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece for their financial support by citing that: 4 ‘The completion of this assignment was conducted in the context of implementation of the Research Master Programme which was co-financed through the Action “Programme of granting scholarships State Scholarships Foundation of Greece (IKY) under the procedure of personalized evaluation 2012-2013” from sources of OP “Education and Life-long learning” of the European Social Fund (ESF) and the NSFR (2007-2013)’ 5 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................................3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................4 CONTENTS ..........................................................................................................................6 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................8 LIST OF FIGURES ..............................................................................................................8 ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................9 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 10 1.1 MOTIVATION ........................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM ............................................................................................................ 12 1.3 THE GOALS AND CONTRIBUTION OF THIS RESEARCH ................................................... 13 1.4 STRUCTURE ............................................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF THE THEORY .................................................................... 15 2.1 DEFINITIONS AND TYPES OF INNOVATION ....................................................................... 15 2.2 THE ROLE OF INNOVATION IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THEORETICAL APPROACHES ............................................................................................................................ 16 2.3 THE LINK BETWEEN INNOVATION, GEOGRAPHY AND POLICY .................................... 19 CHAPTER 3. THE DEBATE BETWEEN PLACE-BASED AND SPATIAL BLIND POLICIES .......................................................................................................................... 27 3.1 THE WORLD BANK DEVELOPMENT REPORT ARGUMENT .............................................. 27 3.2 THE PLACE-BASED ARGUMENT AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE OECD .................. 30 3.3 CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBATE ........................................................................ 31 3.4 THE ROLE OF INNOVATION IN THE DEBATE..................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN ...................................... 37 4.1 INFLUENCES AND MOTIVES BEHIND THE TOPIC ............................................................. 37 4.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................ 39 4.3 ISSUES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................. 40 4.4 SELECTION OF METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES .................................... 41 CHAPTER 5. AN OVERVIEW OF INNOVATION AND INNOVATION POLICY IN THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN GREECE ......................................................... 43 5.1 PRODUCTION PROFILE .......................................................................................................... 43 5.1.1 The Greek economy ................................................................................................................. 43 5.1.2 Regional disparities and regional development in Greece .......................................................... 45 5.2 INNOVATION PERFORMANCE IN GREECE ......................................................................... 48 5.2.1 The innovative profile of Greece .............................................................................................. 48 6 5.2.2 The innovative profile of the Greek regions .............................................................................. 50 5.3. ADMINISTRATION STRUCTURE .......................................................................................... 54 5.4 THE NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM IN GREECE ......................................................... 55 5.5 POLICIES RELATED TO