The innovation networks of city‐regions in Europe: Exclusive clubs or inclusive hubs?

Which role do city-regions play in European innovation network formation? We study the evolution of innovation collaborative networks in European city-regions outlining two opposite models: in the exclusive network model city-regions establish a closed network of innovators among themselves; in the inclusive network models city-regions build a network of innovators which includes the peripheral regions. Employing a temporal exponential random graph model on 248 regions for the period 2000–2016, we find that the two models coexist. We conclude that in the EU the city-regions act as both engines of generation of innovation and integrators of innovation actors. ¿Qué papel desempeñan las ciudades-región en la formación de redes europeas de innovación? Se estudia la evolución de las redes de colaboración en innovación en las ciudades-región europeas mediante el esbozo de dos modelos opuestos: en el modelo de red exclusiva, las ciudades-región establecen entre sí una red cerrada de innovadores; en los modelos de red inclusiva, las ciudades-región construyen una red de innovadores que incluye a las regiones periféricas. Se empleó un modelo de gráfico aleatorio exponencial temporal en 248 regiones para el periodo 2000–2016 y se encontró la coexistencia de los dos modelos. Se concluye que en la UE las ciudades-región actúan tanto como impulsoras de la generación de innovación como integradoras de los agentes de innovación. 欧州のイノベーションネットワーク形成において、都市圏はどのような役割を果たしているか。本稿では、正反対の2つのモデルを形成するヨーロッパの都市圏におけるイノベーション共同ネットワークの進化を研究する。排他的ネットワークモデルでは、都市圏はそのイノベーターら自身だけの閉鎖的なネットワークを確立する。包括的ネットワークモデルでは、都市圏は周辺地域を含むイノベーターのネットワークを構築する。2000~2016年までの248の地域に関して、時間指数ランダムグラフモデルを用いた分析から、2つのモデルが共存していることが分かった。EUにおいては、都市圏がイノベーションの創出とイノベーションの主体者の統合の両方の動作主として機能していると結論される。 City-regions have become the main engines of innovation and economic growth. The growing concentration of innovation into a few city-regions raises significant concerns in terms of uneven territorial development. In the European Union (EU) the issue of regional disparities plays a central role both in the academy and in policy circles (Iammarino et al., 2019). A central topic regards the role that city-regions play in the European model of economic development. This paper addresses the following question: are city-regions becoming an exclusive clubs of innovators, or rather nodes of integration of innovation actors? The two scenarios bring about very different implications for local economic development, the path of economic convergence, and ultimately cohesion within the EU. In fact, while the city-regions play a central role in the generation of innovation in the EU (Filippetti et al., 2020), it is the configuration of their linkages outside their borders which defines their role within the European network of innovation, hence bringing about considerable implications for innovation policies. The presence of innovation networks are necessary to sustain the generation and diffusion of innovation to sustain wealth creation in advanced countries. The generation of innovation has always shown an inherent tendency towards spatial concentration. Following a sort of fractal dynamic innovation tends to get concentrated across countries, across regions, and across territories. The recent globalization wave coupled by the transition towards the knowledge economy, started in the 1980s, has exacerbated the concentration of innovation driven by stronger agglomeration economies and localized knowledge spillovers, as well as the restructuring of the international division of labour along global value chains; this has been further reinforced by supply-side policies aiming at concentrating resources into those territories that would boost aggregate national competitiveness (Baldwin, 2013; Iammarino McCann, 2008; Moreno et al., 2005; Paunov et al., 2019; Simmie et al., 2002). The rise of the so-called city-regions is a macroscopic outcome of these dynamics. Over the past decades city-regions have become the key engines of economic growth by being central generators of new ideas, knowledge and innovation (Scott, 2019; Storper, 2013). They have grown in size throughout a cumulative process which has attracted inventors, high-skilled labour force, entrepreneurs and start-ups, together with foreign direct investment of multinational corporations in hi-tech industries and knowledge intensive sectors, attracted by universities and research centres (Florida et al., 2017; Glaeser, 2011; Iammarino Moretti, 2012; Rodriguez-Pose further, to 10% of for of to the European et al., 2019). This into the concentration of high-skilled in urban et al., Moretti, 2012; Storper, 2013). The presence of networks in innovation activities is of the which the diffusion of knowledge and innovation a policy the diffusion of innovation and knowledge is a of the economic the of economic by the to less innovative regions to by new and The EU has policies to the generation of innovation and The of the European at a for innovation and across the EU. 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