Innovation behaviour and regional indigenous potential

Meyer-Krahmer F. (1985) Innovation behaviour and regional indigenous potential, Reg. Studies 19, 523–534. This paper has been written in order to present empirical results about some hypotheses not yet very well clarified in innovation-oriented regional research. The first part relates to one of the assumptions underlying innovation-oriented regional policy, which is that innovating and non-innovating firms have different characteristics with respect to employment, product-lines and markets; in particular, the contribution to regional growth made by innovating firms is said to be larger. In the second part of the paper, the results of a study are presented in which it was attempted to find out empirically the extent of regional differences in indigenous innovation potential in the Federal Republic of Germany. Reference is made to the innovating firms, their performance and behaviour, and bottlenecks in innovation. As in other recent studies, it is confirmed that there exists also in rural regions a sizeab...