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This paper combines three major concepts: regional development platforms, business ecosystems and competitiveness policy. The framework of business and innovation ecosystems is gaining ground in the discussion of competitiveness and innovation policy. The framework challenges competitiveness and innovation policies because ecosystems are seen as highly self‐organising and self‐renewing systems. Is there still room for innovation and competitiveness policies? This paper focuses on ecosystem‐facilitating competitiveness policy at the regional level and argues that the emergence, growth and renewal of business ecosystems can be facilitated by a competitiveness policy focused on related variety platforms embedded in a regional innovation ecosystem. As a case illustrating this point, we present the strategic themes and development platforms in the Lahti urban region, which are constructed following the ecosystem theory. This paper contributes to the previous literature on regional development and innovation policy by presenting a policy framework for a modern competitiveness policy that is based on constructed competitiveness, development platforms and business and innovation ecosystem theory. For policy practice, this paper provides a real‐life example of a regional competitiveness strategy and the construction of a strategy that is based on the ecosystem frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate how the innovation expectations of public financiers are related to realized patents. The analysis is based on a novel data set of collaborative R&D projects subsidized by the Finnish Agency of Technology and Innovation (Tekes) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) during the period 2000-2004. Innovation expectations are measured using reports submitted by Tekes experts during ex ante assessments of projects. Our probit model results reveal that Tekes' patent expectations are positively related to realized patents for projects led by private firms (but not by public organizations). For large organizations, Tekes' innovation expectations are better at predicting patenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Finland, there has been a strong tendency to direct rural development from competitiveness and (traditional) enterprise and industrial policy towards a more holistic, systemic and place-based "vitality policy" including softer development values related to attractive living environments, communality and the well-being of residents. Research on the topic has, however, remained limited and the views of municipalities unaccounted for. Here, the issue of how municipalities themselves regard this shift in their development work was taken under scrutiny using data collected from the rural and peripheral region of North Karelia (Finland). The empirical material was collected from municipal strategies and via face-to-face and telephone interviews with municipal officials. The results show that vitality policy is a holistic place-based tool to develop rural regions involving several policy sectors and a network (system) of organisations from the public, private, and third-sector centred around the municipality, that is, local government. Thus, those involved constitute a quadruple helix of actors engaged in rural development. At the same time, under vitality policy, the municipalities have taken a more active role towards strengthening communality. Nevertheless, if (traditional) enterprise and industrial policy fails, other policy measures will have a limited impact on rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]