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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Louise KemptonORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Routledge, 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Since the 1990s it has become a prevalent convention among regional policy makers that universities are central actors in regional innovation through delivery of their core research and teaching missions. This is underpinned by some key assumptions – that universities are key to successful regional innovation systems; that they are willing and able to contribute to it; and that where barriers exist these can be overcome. This paper will argue that the importance of universities for regional innovation is probably overstated, that their internal structures, policies and processes often impede their involvement in practice, and that external barriers to university engagement in regional innovation are significant, deeply rooted and difficult to overcome. It will also challenge the dependence on a small number of case studies of success that were the results of inimitable sets of circumstances as a ‘blueprint’ for other regions and their universities. Drawing on evidence from the existing literature this paper will present an analysis that aims to help policy makers better understand the forces that impede universities from meaningful regional engagement in order to support more realistic strategy development in the future.
Author(s): Kempton L
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: European Planning Studies
Year: 2019
Volume: 27
Issue: 11
Pages: 2248-2265
Online publication date: 20/06/2019
Acceptance date: 02/06/2019
Date deposited: 19/09/2018
ISSN (print): 0965-4313
ISSN (electronic): 1469-5944
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2019.1628183
DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2019.1628183
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