Regional innovation performance in light of social-capital research and application

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the existing studies of social capital in the framework of regional innovation systems and attempt to answer the question of whether any new insights or methodological shifts have occurred in the last few (seven or so) years. The reconstruction of empirical findings reveals a rather ambiguous picture. It seems that only radical modification of research design and methods can give new impetus and allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the role of social capital and/or its dimensions in (regional) innovation processes. Regarding the existing body of knowledge, the meta-analytical approach is appropriate in order to discern the most relevant, grounded and comparable theses and data. In the case of new research, more attention should be paid to the ethnographic approach and to triangulation.