Regional innovation systems: The integration of local 'sticky' and global 'ubiquitous' knowledge

The paper examines how firms in three regional clusters in Norway dominated by shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and electronics industry, respectively exploit both place-specific local resources as well as external, world-class knowledge to strengthen their competitiveness. From these case-studies we make four points: (1) ideal-typical regional innovation systems, i.e., regional clusters "surrounded" by supporting local organisations, is rather uncommon in Norway; (2) external contacts, outside of the local industrial milieu, are crucial in innovation processes also in many SMEs; (3) innovation processes may nevertheless be regarded as regional phenomena in regional clusters, as regional resources and collaborative networks often have decisive significance for firms' innovation activity; and (4) regional resources include in particular place-specific, contextual knowledge of both tacit and codified nature, that, in combination, is rather geographically immobile