Negrea Alina Petronela, Valentin Cojanu Journal “Supporting regional competitiveness through innovation. Case study: Sud Muntenia”, of International Journal of International Studies , Vol. 6, No 1, 2013, pp. 51-58. Studies cPapers © Foundation of International Supporting regional competitiveness through innovation. Studies, 2013 © CSR, 2013 Case study: Sud Muntenia Scienti Negrea Alina Petronela Valentin Cojanu # e Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) Romania
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[email protected] Abstract. * e present research underlies on the idea that recently, in both governmental Received : January, 2013 long term strategies and economic theories, regions are considered as centres of eco- 1st Revision: nomic growth and as hubs in knowledge spill-over of and that innovation is a key March, 2013 component of long-term economic prosperity. * e analysis focuses on discovering Accepted: May, 2013 how regional competitiveness can be supported by innovation, emphasizing also the role that economic agglomeration and clusters have in this process. * e study is based on a Romanian region, Sud Muntenia, and presents an image of the innovation sup- port structures, academic environment, innovation partnerships and clusters alloca- tion in the region in comparison to the national level. * e used methodology relies on quantitative and qualitative instruments, information being processed from statistical data, focus groups and questionnaires applied on the main regional actors involved in the innovation process. Keywords: competitiveness, regional development, innovation, clusters, Sud Muntenia JEL classifi cation: O31, R11 1. INTRODUCTION Competitiveness is one of the vexed, widely used and defi ned concepts by economists and scholars over the past years from diff erent points of view. If the the concept regarding fi rm competitiveness is well defi ned and has received greater attention, when it comes to analyzing a region’s competitiveness, things are not that clear and so far a common opinion hasn’t been reached.