This paper provides the role of innovation in regional development. The most important factors and stakeholders for the success of regional development are presented, such as industries, SME's and large companies, which do business in a specific region, local educational organizations, universities, institutes and research centers, which can provide the ordered scientific knowledge for the businesses to scale up and the Government, especially the local Authorities, which can support and boost the efforts of the other stakeholders to grow up. The collaboration of all these stakeholders based on the “Triple Helix model”, which is analyzed in the second part of this paper. In the third part of this paper is presented and described the Alexander Innovation Zone S.A., which is established in Thessaloniki, in Northern Greece, by providing its definition, scope, vision, and actions. Finally, some suggestions are presented for the Innovation zones in general and for the regional development.

This book brings together original research on the role of networks in regional economic development and innovation. It presents a comprehensive framework synthesizing extant theories, a palette of real-world cases in the aerospace, automotive, life science, biotechnology and health care industries, and fundamental agent-based computer models elucidating the relation between regional development and network dynamics. The book is primarily intended for researchers in the fields of innovation economics and evolutionary economic geography, and particularly those interested in using agent-based models and empirical case studies. However, it also targets (regional) innovation policy makers who are not only interested in policy recommendations, but also want to understand the state-of-the-art agent-based modeling methods used to experimentally arrive at said recommendations.

The need for informed and effective insights into key concepts and models of regional development and growth, from an endogenous growth perspective, has risen over the past decade. These recent advances address in particular local and regional assets and characteristics comprising inter alia creativity, knowledge, innovation forces and entrepreneurship. Access to and exploitation of these modern forms of human and social capital are of paramount importance for the dynamic regional economic environment in a city or region. This volume offers an overview and critical treatment of the spatial-economic roots, opportunities and impacts of new growth strategies, mainly from an evidence-based perspective. In the various contributions to this volume, relevant findings and strategic options are interpreted and discussed from both an analytical and a policy perspective to help cultivate creativity, human capital development and innovation as well as entrepreneurial activity, with a view to exploit the drivers of economic development, in order to strengthen the competitive edge of cities and regions.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in urban and regional planning processes and science, as presented by international researchers at the 11th International Conference on Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning (INPUT), held in Catania, Italy, on September 8-10, 2021. The overarching theme of the conference INPUT 2021 was “Integrating Nature-Based Solutions in Planning Science and Practice”, with contributes focusing on functionality of urban ecosystems toward more healthier and resilient cities, planning solutions for socio-ecological systems, technologies and hybrid models for spatial planning, geodesign, urban metabolism, computational planning, ecosystems services, green infrastructure, climate change adaptation and mitigation, rural landscapes, cultural heritage, and accessibility for urban planning. The conference brought together international scholars in the field of planning, civil engineering and architecture, ecology and social science, to build and consolidate the knowledge and evidence on NBS in urban and regional planning.

In an era of intense globalization, the critical role of the region as a center for economic development has sometimes been overlooked. Moreover, innovation is increasingly being recognized as being a critical driver of economic growth and development. However, innovation is no longer being seen as a function of research and development; nor is R&D being seen as being sufficient for the creation of technology-intensive industries and the valuable economic spillovers that result in high value-added jobs and exports. Indeed, much more than ever before, it is the combination of factors that contributes to innovation - ranging over skills, finance, production, user-producer linkages, the capacity of organizations to learn, and multilayered government policies - that make local regions the favorites of fortune. Using an evolutionary economic perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines and accomplished scholars, Local and Regional Systems of Innovation explores important issues at a conceptual, methodological and comparative level concerning how successful locations actually construct their comparative advantage.

International contributors provide the first examination of the growing subject of regional knowledge-economy development. Illustrated by data and 'stylized' accounts, the international contributors chart the evolution of knowledge economies, questioning the way in which they work and criticize accepted theories and inform how places can cope in the knowledge economy. Based in concept on Cooke's Knowledge Economies (Routledge, 2002), Regional Development in the Knowledge Economy is a well-grounded work exploring this increasingly important theme with relevance to innovation systems and related economic development literature.

Regional technology-based economic development and the recruitment and retention of talent is a top priority of city-regions in the United States and in countries around the world. However, policy recommendations from government officials, industry leaders and academics are often ambiguous or are in conflict. To address these issues, this book deals with the complex intersection of institutional theory and national and regional policy initiatives. It provides an overview of United States and Japanese technology policy development at the national level with case analyses of Austin, Texas and Tsuruoka, Japan to identify key regional strategies and processes that have resulted in successful endogenous technology-based business development and job creation. It offers an innovative analytical perspective to improve our understanding of how successful tech-based regional economic development works in theory and practice. The book’s discussion is grounded on important technology paradigm shifts in the US and Japan from 1970 to 1980 leading to current realities. To address the complex “Puzzle of Space” conundrum, the authors describe similarities and differences in regional development processes in Austin and Tsuruoka. They present a generalizable model indicating necessary and sufficient conditions linked to the building of new “Small i” institutions at normative and cognitive levels of analysis in consort with regulative policy and innovations at macro level “Capital I” institutions. The book clearly explains the relations between institutions and economic growth, an important issue in contemporary economics. The book’s conclusions clarify critical success factors for endogenous regional development growth theory and lead to recommendations for policymakers who are searching for ways to achieve success.