Open AccessThe S wedish system of innovation: Regional synergies in a knowledge‐based economy
Author(s) -
Leydesdorff Loet,
Strand Øivind
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1532-2890
pISSN - 1532-2882
DOI - 10.1002/asi.22895
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , measure (data warehouse) , regional science , triple helix , regional innovation system , innovation system , business , set (abstract data type) , computer science , industrial organization , organizational structure , knowledge management , economic geography , economics , geography , data mining , management , genetics , archaeology , biology , programming language
Based on the complete set of firm data for S weden ( N = 1,187,421; N ovember 2011), we analyze the mutual information among the geographical, technological, and organizational distributions in terms of synergies at regional and national levels. Using this measure, the interaction among three dimensions can become negative and thus indicate a net export of uncertainty by a system or, in other words, synergy in how knowledge functions are distributed over the carriers. Aggregation at the regional level ( NUTS3 ) of the data organized at the municipal level ( NUTS5 ) shows that 48.5% of the regional synergy is provided by the 3 metropolitan regions of Stockholm, G othenburg, and M almö/ L und. S weden can be considered a centralized and hierarchically organized system. Our results accord with other statistics, but this triple helix indicator measures synergy more specifically and quantitatively. The analysis also provides us with validation for using this measure in previous studies of more regionalized systems of innovation (such as H ungary and N orway).