Differences between European regional innovation systems in terms of technological and economic characteristics

This study aims to identify different types of regional innovation systems (RISs) and explain regional dynamic changes, in terms of technological specialization and economic characteristics, between periods. We firstly collect various variables on regional level from EPO (European Patent Office) and REGIO database to extract and construct regional characteristics. Secondly, these characteristics are used to distinguish the differences between RISs, e.g. high-tech RISs and low specialization RISs. According to our empirical results, we find that some regional characteristics, such as high-tech specialization and high innovativeness, have highly close relationship within RISs. Furthermore, the comparison between periods shows us different characteristics in technological specializations in early stage lead RISs toward different RISs in economic performance, technological development and innovativeness