White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDEN5 Conclusions and policyimplications5.1 Summing upReframing the regional development problemThere is in our view substantial value in deploying complex adaptive systems theory to„reframe‟ the regional development problem. It is clear that, for example, „emergence‟is hindered where „relatedness‟ is undeveloped or „clusters‟ are few and far between. Anadditional dimension of this reframing is that there is much to be explored by taking ahorizontal perspective on knowledge flow dynamics rather than the clearly questionable„smart specialisation‟ promulgated by the likes of the EU, still under the sway of 1960s„sector policy‟ concerns and their modern variant of the pursuit of „cluster-building‟policy. It has been shown that leading firms and intermediaries are already benefitingfrom exploring „platform‟ convergence opportunities among hitherto „strange attractors‟.Complexity science is not enoughA second conclusion is that complexity science is not enough as a guide to regionaldevelopment theory and practice, though it is an extremely powerful tool facilitatingregional analysis. Because it lacks a theory of action, even though it explains in a satisfactorymanner how life constantly presents individuals and institutions with the challengeof the „adjacent possible‟, it is incomplete for practical purposes. The analysispresented found the implications of a design theoretical approach moved some waytowards filling that intellectual gap. Moreover, it was interesting and important to turnup evidence that accomplished intermediaries had anticipated design theoretic insights.Complexity geographyThirdly, and returning to the core of complexity geography, it was shown that evidencecan readily be adduced to show that much innovation is a product of „revealed relatedness‟among „strange attractors‟ at the individual level. This hints at the growing powerof complex evolutionary economic geography compared to the inheritance from mainstream„social physics‟ which is now revealed to be a truly inappropriate metaphor forthe analysis of social processes. This stance is also underpinned by the wholes to partsinteraction referred to in chapter 2.98