Innovation systems in regional development and role of the state: Turkish case

The concept of regional development which emerged alongside the rising trend of development economics in the Post World War 2 period began to be restructured as a result of the economic crises of 1970?s. Regional development which was shaped according to interventionist reasoning of Keynesian welfare state shifted into a new dimension with the emergence of successful regions based on internal dynamics. A general consensus on innovation as the principle factor in mobilizing these internal dynamics was reached in this period of spatial restructuring. During this period when innovation came to be viewed as the foundation of regional development various spatial innovation models were offered to explain the linear process between innovation and regional development. Among these models regional innovation systems has especially exhibited interesting developments.Regional innovation systems attempts to explain the how firms, universities and the state contribute to innovation process at a regional scale. In this approach universities produce fundamental scientific research and firms transform knowledge into commercialized products. The state ensures that the innovative actors in the region work interactively. From this perspective the state has a regulatory role in regional innovation systems. The regulatory role of the state covers a variety of areas such as building habitats for innovation and entrepreneurship, promotion of clustering and supporting innovative networks.The role of government regulation in regional innovation systems is a current topic in Turkey, as it is in many other countries. Especially the process initiated by the 9th Five Year Development Plan foresees support for regional innovation systems. In this regard important regulations based on innovation systems were undertaken. But, despite the increasing importance of regional innovation systems policies towards these systems are significantly deficient and a regional innovation program directly aimed towards innovation systems have not been applied. Therefore the role of the state in development of regional innovation systems has been extremely limited.Key Words: Regional Development, Innovation, System Approach, Innovation Systems