The role of universities in the regional innovation systems of the North East of England and Scania, Sweden: providing missing links?

The increased popularity of and attention for innovation based regional growth and development has, among other things, brought forward the importance of universities in regional innovation systems (RIS). The triple helix literature especially underscores the value of increased interaction and interdependence between universities – industry – government in modern, knowledge-based economies by acclaiming the rise of the entrepreneurial. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the RIS problems in the North East in the UK and Scania in Sweden and the role of universities in regional innovation policy addressing these problems. The results of this comparison question a one-size-fits-all (entrepreneurial) model to harness university based knowledge resources for regional development. Instead it is shown that various constellations are possible dependent on the characteristics of the RIS problems.