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In recent decades, research has begun to examine the concept of the regional policy mix and its implications for regional innovation. While this has highlighted the role of interactions between multilevel policy instruments and the potential for duplication and synergies, it has tended to underplay the contribution of policy actors to managing such policy mix processes. This paper seeks to add to this literature by introducing the concept of boundary work, viewing it as a form of agency practice seeking to create, maintain, and disrupt instruments within the policy mix. Through a case study of digital technology diffusion instruments in Wales (UK), this paper examines the actors, practices, and effects of boundary work in the regional policy mix. The findings show that boundary work can help manage tensions in the policy mix through anticipatory practices but that complexity and uncertainty in the regional innovation policy mix present ongoing challenges to policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy entrepreneurs have been identified as playing an important role in the emergence of public policies for innovation. Despite the growing number of studies, the role of context has only recently begun to be explored in detail. This article contributes by investigating the interplay between the institutional context and the strategies of policy entrepreneurs, in the successful introduction of new policy ideas for services innovation. Building on insights from institutional theory, it argues that policy entrepreneurs are embedded in a multidimensional context of field-level conditions, multi-level standard operating procedures for policy development, and the social position of actors. It explores the activities of policy entrepreneurs in two countries—Finland and Ireland—and finds that differences in the institutional context help explain why some entrepreneurs are able to develop and implement new policies, while others fail. The article draws on comparative case study evidence including documentary analysis and interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews how peripheral regions are less favored in terms of technological adaptation and innovation. Key tasks that network programs need to perform; Two models of networks that target an industry; Two case studies on network programs in Wales; Comparison of the two network models.

This article reviews the emergence of regional policy initiatives designed to stimulate learning, innovation and regional development in Europe's less favoured regions. Drawing on the European Commission-sponsored Wales Regional Technology Plan as a case study, it examines progress and outcomes using the conceptual framework of regional experimentalism. The article concludes that the Wales RTP has helped to develop significant interactive learning processes among the regional state, firms and intermediaries. Important questions, however, are raised as to whether the RTP process in Wales has engendered the sufficiently path-breaking forms of dialogue anti-cipated by theorists. In this respect, the article suggests that regional experimentalism underestimates the problems associated with creating novel policy processes in environments characterized by well entrenched interests and responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing attention has been paid to the potential for demand-side policies to stimulate use of broadband networks. Such policies form part of the increasing digitalisation of the economy and wider society. This is an area where governments are also facing challenges in their efforts to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their policies. The paper sheds light on the impact that the transition towards digital has had on demand-side policies supporting the adoption of broadband and digital technologies by SMEs, and draws out the implications for policy, using a case study of Wales in the UK over a ten-year period. It shows that digitalisation has seen policy mechanisms and messages evolving as policy makers have created a more integrated and multi-channel approach to the delivery of advisory support to SMEs, but that the emergence of multiple types of actors (large digital platform businesses) and ongoing digitalisation are adding complexity to policies and their interaction with other forms of public and private business support. • Examines demand-side advisory policies for SMEs through a longitudinal case-study of Wales. • Develops a novel framework to study policy mechanisms, messages, actors and digital transition in SME advisory policies. • Identifies the emergence of greater complexity in demand-side policy design and delivery, and SME needs. • Shows the emergence of blended models of online and offline SME advisory policies and the emergence of new policy messages. • Provides policy implications focusing on how policymakers might respond to digital transition in demand-side policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]