Publications 2015 – 2017
Brett, V and O’ Gorman, B., Afonso, O. (2017) Supporting Knowledge and Policy Based Stakeholders in Delivering Regional Impact: A Tool to Select Regional Innovation Scoreboard Indicators in The Quadruple Innovation Helix Nexus: Smart Growth Model, Qualitative Empirical Validation and Operationalisation for OCED Countries. Ed Elias G. Carayannis. Palgrave.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F978-1-137-55577-9_6
The aim of the research is to explore how regional stakeholders can improve local and regional innovation policies and the transfer of best practices by devising a technique that ranks the EU Innovation Scoreboard indicators and instructs which indicator, if improved, could have the greatest impact for the region. In the current research the themes selected are Technology Licensing (TL), Spin-Off Creation and Entrepreneurship (SCE) and University-Industry Relations (UIR).
O’Gorman, B., Brett, V and Lalrindiki, M. (2016) Developing Region Specific Smart Specialisations. Case Study of South East Ireland, Regions, No 302, Issue 2, pp25-28
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13673882.2016.11742706
This paper focuses on just one aspect of the eDIGIREGION project, namely the creation of a Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) for South East Ireland. The paper starts with an overview of S3 from an EU and national dimension, next the paper details how eDIGIREGION designed and implemented a process through which the South East Ireland region-specific S3 was developed.
Lalrindiki, M. and O’Gorman, B. (2016) Proximity and Inter-regional Innovation Systems: A look into Institutional Proximity Presented at Regional Studies Association Annual Conference (Graz, Austria) 3rd – 6th April, 2016
There is a tendency in assuming that proximity only means geographical distance. However, certain studies have stressed the importance of other non-spatial dimensions which are crucial for a successful innovative collaboration. Consequently, it has been broadly debated that geographical proximity can be advantageous for inter-organisational collaboration and innovation and that the possibilities of face-to-face interactions decreases coordination costs and facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge. However, in inter-regional collaboration, transfer of tacit knowledge is often considered not to be possible from a distance. The local character and the perception of region as a locus of innovation has been emphasised in the innovation processes perceiving spatial proximity as a competitive advantage which raises the question of the possibility of collaborating at a distance. This paper aims to answer this question by looking into institutional proximity and the substitution mechanism for geographical proximity. Even though there is a high disposition that geographical proximity cannot be substituted by institutional proximity, a study has found that it is indeed possible. However, keeping in mind that when it comes to collaborating over a distance, this substitution mechanism is considered to have low importance as the greatest barrier is the institutional differences.
Botelho Junior, S., and O’Gorman, B. (2016) Knowledge spillover: increasing the innovative capacity of European regions. European Week of Regions and Cities University Master Class (Brussels, Belgium) 9th – 13th October 2016
This paper focuses on an important aspect that has the capacity to significantly increase the innovative capacity of European regions, that is, knowledge spillover (KS). As KS subsidises prosperity, it is of interest to regional governments to foment the phenomenon. However, the process of knowledge spillover is not comprehended in order to be facilitated. This paper aims at contributing to the elucidation of this process by focusing on the causes that lead KS to happen in the regional context, i.e. the channels of KS. Thus, channels of KS are means and avenues that cause KS to happen within regions. Based on a survey administered to ICT and manufacturing firms in three different regions, the main objective of this paper is to present the channels of KS and identify the critical channels of KS. The results indicate the most and least important channels of KS for each region as well as for industry sectors with different technology intensity. A unique aspect of this research is the exploratory factor analysis, which revealed four groups of channels of KS, namely, Research interaction, Regional interaction, External resources, and Market learning.
Botelho Junior, S., and O’Gorman, B. (2016) Understanding the Process of Knowledge Spillover (KS) within Regional Innovation Systems (RIS): a Methodology. Regional Studies Association Annual Conference (Graz, Austria) 3rd – 6th April, 2016
It is well known that Knowledge Spillover (KS) happens, but existing literature to date shows that it is still unclear as to how exactly it happens. It is important to understand the KS process as it leads firms towards innovation and regions to sustainable development and growth. Moreover, KS is continuously taking place in Regional Innovation Systems (RIS). As a result, this is a methodological paper that has the objective of proposing a mixed method approach methodology to understand KS within RIS in four different European regions (South East, Ireland; Castilla-La Mancha, Spain; Bucharest-Iflov, Romania; and Central Hungary). The key assumption of this methodology paper is that in order to understand about a phenomenon, such as KS, it is first of all necessary to understand its causes.
Botelho Junior, S., and O’Gorman, B. (2015) The domino effect: an investigation into the process of knowledge spillover (KS), International Conference on Regional Science (Reus, Spain), 19th – 20th November 2015
This paper proposes a methodology to investigate and understand the process to propagate knowledge spillover. Consequently, first of all the paper explores understanding the process by which knowledge spillover happens. Knowledge spillover is a core ingredient of successful regional innovation systems (RIS). Therefore such understanding will help to enhance the long term sustainability of RIS.
O’Gorman, B., Brett, V. and Lalrindiki, M. (2015) ‘Exploring and Developing Regional Smart Specialisations in South East Ireland’ presented at Regional Studies Association-Irish Branch Conference, Cork 4th September, 2015
Smart Specialisation as a policy concept (Kempton, Goddard, Edwards, Hegyi and Pérez, 2013) is designed to enable economic growth and development through enhanced innovation performance at both regional and national levels. The concept is unique as it enables regions to focus on their strengths as opposed to replicating or mimicking what is already successful in other regions. Therefore, regional and national policy-makers need to think smartly about their regional economies and how they can achieve viable, supportive, sustainable growth and development. Many European regional economies, as part of the Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3), have already identified their smart specialisations. However each region is different, and therefore each determines its smart specialisations strategy in its own way.
In South East Ireland the eDIGIREGION project has identified a process for the development of a regional smart specialisation strategy within the context of Digital Agenda by focusing on ICT as an enabler (EC, 2014). Within this specific context, collaboration is centred on the triple helix stakeholders in the region and the commitment of individuals to become smart specialisation “champions” to deliver on the South East region’s potential smart specialisations identified through an extensive benchmark audit process. This paper discusses how the eDIGIREGION project designed the regional audit process for identifying smart specialisations. The paper also elaborates on how the smart specialisations were identified for the South East Region. The audit process had two main objectives, firstly to understand what smart specialisations the South East region should focus on, but also to engage the relevant stakeholders in the process of developing a smart specialisation vision and commitment for the south East Region.
Lalrindiki, M., O’Gorman, B. and Brett, V. (2015) ‘The Influence of Regional Level Institutional Frameworks in the Evolution of an Inter-regional Innovation System: A Conceptual Paper’ Proceedings of the European Week of Regions and Cities – Open Days 2015 Master Class on EU Cohesion Policy, Brussels, 12th – 15th October, 2015
The aim of this study is to identify the institutional gaps at intra and inter- regional level. However, it is not determined that the type of gaps conceptualised in this study would be the gaps identified. Geographical proximity among the actors is regarded to be an important ingredient for a successful collaboration (Cramton, 2001) even with the developments in communication technologies. The regions in this study are not geographically bounded except for Bucharest-lifov, Romania and Kozep-Magyarorszag, Hungary regions. Therefore the inter-regional collaboration between these regions may show different barriers impeding the collaboration as compared to the other regions in the study. One of the expectations is the innovative capability of the regions to differ and this difference is expected to facilitate the collaboration rather than hindering it.
Botelho Junior, S., and O’Gorman, B. (2015) Knowledge spillover propagation in Regional Innovation Systems, Regional Science Association International-British and Irish section Conference 17th-18th August, 2015
This theoretical paper identifies channels of KS that are relevant for the regional context within the literature. Based on these channels, this paper aims at proposing a methodology to understand the process by which knowledge spillover (KS) happens in order to propagate the phenomenon. The quantitative relies on a survey with stakeholders to examine the outputs and effects of KS. Responses will be coded to a factor analysis to reveal how the variables are grouped into different underlying structures capable of propagating KS. These structures will be used to develop an interview protocol to gather additional data from regional stakeholders. Its purpose is to obtain a deeper understanding of how KS happens and why. This work is unique in that it focuses on the how and why knowledge spillover happens as opposed to merely the output of KS.
Lalrindiki, M., O’Gorman, B. and Brett, V. (2015) ‘The Influence of Regional Level Institutional Frameworks in the Evolution of an Inter-regional Innovation System: A Conceptual Paper’ presented at Regional Science Association International-British and Irish section Conference, Dublin 17th-18th August, 2015
Increasing attention has been directed towards Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) as a topic of research. Cooke, Uranga and Etxebarria (2008) established that RIS characterised by embeddedness where firms and other organisations are systematically engaged in interactive learning through an institutional environment, have the strongest potential to justify the status of a RIS. Therefore, the barriers hindering a region in achieving this status have become the relevant area of focus for this study.
This study will focus on four regions: South East, Ireland, Bucharest-lifov, Romania, Castilla-La-Mancha, Spain and Kozep-Magyarorszag, Hungary. Stakeholders from academia, government and industry in each region will be used as participants for this study. At the regional level, the relationship between the stakeholders in different institutions will be studied with the intention of identifying and understanding how the gaps are dealt with and the effect of this on regional innovation systems.