Towards a dynamic conceptualisation of the Regional Innovation System: the Systemic Knowledge Network Continuum

The Regional Innovation System concept remains widely used but, since its introduction thirty years ago, has suffered from static conceptualization in the context of network evolution and dynamics and its existence in almost every region is often pre-assumed without questioning its systemic nature and qualities. This conceptual paper draws on the dimensions of knowledge exchange relations and networks and suggests a new dynamic approach based on the interplay of regional relational knowledge structures and interactive knowledge exchange processes over time. Driven by network endogenous processes and the structural dynamics of systemic dimensions (coherence, boundedness, and unifying function), we model the evolution of regional knowledge networks into innovation systems along an interaction-network-system continuum.