Institutional work in the maintenance of regional innovation policy instruments: evidence from Wales

This paper contributes towards growing interest in the role of actors and agency in regional innovation policy processes. While entrepreneurial agency has begun to be explored, the paper broadens this focus to include actor roles in the maintenance of regional innovation policies over time. Drawing on the concept of institutional work, and evidence from Wales, it finds maintenance to be a process of strategic care, involving interplay between structural factors promoting durability, and normative and deterrence practices at the regional level. These practices, it suggests, can contribute towards stability and persistence, but with mixed effects over time.