Systems of innovation in traditional industrial regions: The case of Styria in a comparative perspective

Concepts of innovation have changed considerably in the past years, the focus shifting from a company perspective to regional and national systems of innovation. In this paper the authors investigate to what extent an innovation system can also be observed in an old industrial region like Styria in Austria, a region undergoing considerable restructuring in the past years. The results for Styria are compared with those for other old industrial regions such as Wales, the Tampere region and the Basque country. The findings show that firms rely only partly on innovation partners within the region; to a considerable extent they are integrated in national and European networks.