Unlocking Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Edited by Iréne Bernhard, PhD, Urban Gråsjö, PhD, School of Business, Economics and IT, University West and Charlie Karlsson, Professor Emeritus, Jönköping University and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden

• Contents:1 Introduction to Unlocking Regional Innovation andEntrepreneurship: The Potential for Increasing Capacities 1Iréne Bernhard, Urban Gråsjö and Charlie Karlsson2 Activating and redirecting regional potentials throughinnovation and entrepreneurship: an explorative study ofEuropean regions 14Andreas P. Cornett and Nils Karl Sørensen3 Urban innovation districts as hotspots for innovators 38Claudia Trillo4 Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship policy and regionalinnovation systems 64Helen Lawton Smith5 Industrial policy in developed countries: a difficult butimportant policy area 81Charlie Karlsson and Sam Tavassoli6 Cultural policy for unlocking potentials of culturalactivities in diverse regions 111Giedrė Dzemydaitė7 Assessing the role of entropy on economic complexity inItalian regions 134Roberto Antonietti and Chiara Burlina8 Regional institutions and small business in Russia 158Yulia V. Tsareva, Stepan P. Zemtsov and Vera A. Barinova9 Hiring the first employee: an international explorationon the considerations leading to job creation by the soloself-employed 186Albert Kraaij and Saskia Rademaker10 How patenting and self-employment have affected USmetropolitan growth 219Gordon F. Mulligan11 Automation of income support in the public socialservices: a case study of an innovation that is still struggling 248Elin Wihlborg and Mariana S. Gustafsson12 Businessization and collaboration of the citizen/non-profitsector in Japan 271Masashi Imase13 Complementary smart specialization in a key Polish region 298Patryk Czerwony, Mirosław Miller and Tomasz Mroczkowski14 Higher education and inclusion: a comparative study ofimmigrants’ challenges, opportunities and strategies inSweden and South Africa 321Victoria Johansson and Deeqa OdawayIndex

‘Innovation and entrepreneurship are key to economic development. But these factors are far more concentrated geographically than wealth or employment. Why is this the case? Unlocking Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides the answers. A must-read for scholars and policymakers who want to unleash the economic potential of territories.’