Innovative capacity in European peripheral regions: Determinants and empirical evidence

The paper aims to study the drivers of innovative capacity of European peripheral regions, whose innovative behaviour has received less attention in the literature than successful regions. To achieve this objective, we apply the Furman et al. (2002) model in order to test if this model is applicable at regional level. Regarding to this point, it constitutes the second objective of the paper. We empirically study the drivers of innovative capacity in European peripheral regions by providing econometric analysis of panel data methodology based on data taken from the Eurostat for the period 1996-2007. The empirical results highlight the importance of the common innovation infrastructure and the cluster- specific environment as main determinants of regional innovative capacity. However, the statistical results suggest that for the European peripheral case the role of quality of linkages is limited and that in this kind of regions there is a little interaction.