National and Regional Competitiveness: Systems of Innovation,Edward J. Malecki Department of Geography The Ohio State University CASIC Research Summit Chicago, April 2019,Competitiveness: What Do We Know? The diamond model: the determinants of national advantage (Source: Porter 1990, Figure 3-1, p. 72).,The World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Index Source: Based on Porter et al. (2019: 55, Figure 6),The Microeconomic Business Environment Source: Based on Porter et al. (2019: 55, Figure 4),WEF: Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore and then, in 4th place, the USASource: WEF GCR 2019-11,IMDs World Competitiveness Yearbook,2019 Rankings: 1. Singapore, 2. Hong Kong, 3. USA, 4. Switzerland Based on: Economic Performance Domestic economy, International trade, International investment, Employment, Prices Government efficiency Public finance, Fiscal policy, Institutional framework, Business legislation, Societal framework Business efficiency Productivity, Labor market, Finance, Management practices, Attitudes and values Infrastructure Basic infrastructure, Technological infrastructure, Scientific infrastructure, Health and environment, Education,Information Technology and Innovation Foundation,“To find global leaders, Asia is the place to look.” Based on: Human capital Innovation capacity Entrepreneurship Information technology (IT) infrastructure Economic policy Economic performance,Competition in Science and TechnologySource: Mervis (2019),Is China Number 1? Changes in Technological Competitiveness 1993-2019Source: A. Porter et al. (2009),Constructing Advantage,“Top-down, centrally planned approaches are rarely effective.” Dearing (2019: 347) “Knowledge and innovation capabilities cannot be created by decree, and the processes of knowledge creation, utilization, and transformation are not top-down processes. Rather, they depend on a complex set of values, learning processes, networks and interactions.” Schwaag Serger (2019: 258) It is this collective learning process that policymakers want to create creating or constructing advantage over other places.,Regional Innovation Systems,Clusters of technology-based industries have been seen as potential sources of prosperity. Early examples: Silicon Valley, Route 128 Researchers and policy-makers worldwide have looked to these two originators of technology-based regional development. The excellent region of policy aspirations is based on excellence in research, innovation, and value creation, including spin-offs. Power and Malmberg (2019),Competing to Be Sticky Places,Competition among places involves the enhancement or improvement in the attributes that make it possible to attract and keep both investment and migrants that is, to become sticky places in slippery space. Markusen (2019) Some urban regions are “mountains in a flat world.” Rodriguez-Pose and Crescenzi (2019),R. Florida (2019) “The world is spiky, The Atlantic Monthly (October): 48-51.,World Knowledge Competitiveness IndexHuggins et al. (2019),San Jose Boston,Knowledge capital refers to a regions capacity for creating new ideas and transforming these ideas to create commercial value. R Rutten and Boekema 2019) Knowledge economies (Cooke 2019),Knowledge integration,External (glocal) network,Systems integration at MNCs R Maskell et al. (2019) When repeated over generations of technologies, with the support of the entrepreneurial RIS, this is the characterization of an excellent region.,There Is No Single Optimal Knowledge Transfer Source: Santos et al. 2019,Complexity of Technological Knowledge,Complexity of Market Knowledge,High,Low,High,Low,Move information about the technology to where the market knowledge Is located,Move knowledge by rotating people and by temporary co-location,Exchange information (arms length, digital transfer is sufficient),Move information about the market to where the technology is located,Regional Innovation Systems:more than just clusters of firms,Innovating companies are embedded in a broader institutional setting that can enhance or hinder the innovativeness of the local companies. it is beyond doubt that the external, geographically bounded innovation systems play a crucial role for companies innovativeness. Vanhaverbeke (2019, p. 207) As part of the entrepreneurial support system, venture capitalists provide much more than merely money or financing. Kenney and Patton (2019),