The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore the business ecosystem concept in innovation policy context, and question whether it has something new to bring to the innovation policy field compared to previous theoretical discussions. A comparative study was conducted where three widely utilized policy approaches were examined together with the business ecosystem concept. The ecosystem concept differs from the three approaches, for example, in its evolving around innovation, and its self-organizing and self-renewing nature. This paper sets a conceptual basis for further empirical research concerning the innovation policy implications of the business ecosystem concept.

The transition towards a sustainable circular economy (CE) model is seen as a solution to keep the consumption of the earth’s resources within planetary boundaries. In the regional context, the CE is promoted through various policy actions, one being the smart specialisation concept. This paper provides a novel approach to examining the spatial adaption of a CE through a conceptual framework of research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (S3) in Europe. This interdisciplinary research presents a multi-country comparison of S3 implementation in Europe in 12 regions that have defined the CE as a priority area. The data consist of interviews with representatives of organisations responsible for the regional S3 process. The findings indicate that a political demand exists for proceeding further with the construction of transformative activities involving the CE, but the models and stages of implementation vary. In addition, most regions still struggle with building specific monitoring and evaluation measures and mechanisms for the CE. Despite these challenges, promoting the CE as a strategic priority through the S3 process has, at least in some regions, helped define the CE targets and actions by focusing on existing regional assets and future potential.

The aim of modern innovation policies is to enhance the innovation capability of regions, their organizations and people. Regional innovation system (RIS) theory has been one of the most popular frameworks for realizing innovation policies. Yet, adopting the perspective of sustainable innovation policy where innovation is also seen as a solution to various societal and environmental problems has been slow. Social enterprises (SEs) are discussed here as a means to address those problems, particularly through collaboration between sectors and focusing on social sustainability. The aim of this paper is to identify whether and in what way SEs are communicated as an innovative solution and as a source of innovations for economic and development activities through regional strategies. The data consist of regional innovation and business strategies from all Finnish regions, analysed using qualitative content analysis. We argue that there is a need to go deeper and include effective support mechanisms for SEs in these documents. Better inclusion of SEs as part of innovation systems and communicating this through regional strategies would help to develop SEs and to have them perceived as potential innovators and active entrepreneurial actors in innovation systems contributing to economically, environmentally and socially sustainable development.

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.

The purpose of this study is to explore how SMEs utilize scientific research as part of university–industry collaboration. The study focuses on a less explored phenomenon—the role of scientific research in university–industry collaboration, particularly regarding SMEs and their engagement with cutting-edge research. While university–industry collaboration has been extensively studied, less attention has been given to how SMEs interact with scientific research: What are the motivations to interact with scientific research and what kinds of strategies do they pursue? Data collected from Finnish SMEs through a survey indicate that SMEs value research produced by academic institutions and are interested in its large-scale utilization for various purposes. The findings based on both quantitative cluster analysis and qualitative content analysis highlight that rather than solely focusing on commercial applications, SMEs perceive the primary benefit of research utilization to be the development of knowledge capital. The study identifies four distinct SME strategies for research utilization—(1) focused utilization of cutting-edge research, (2) utilization of cutting-edge research trends, (3) utilization of research as an aid to company development, and (4) utilization of research as a company resource. The results of the study also show that SMEs interested in the utilization of cutting-edge research consider the field of the research group, the characteristics of individual researchers, and the academic reputation of the research group or its members more important. This study contributes to university–industry collaboration and knowledge transfer theories by offering insights into SMEs’ engagement with scientific research.

Entrepreneurial culture is a key element of the success of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Previous studies have shown that regional levels of entrepreneurial activity tend to remain persistent over long periods of time and that cultural attitudes in favour of entrepreneurship and rooted in the history of the region can influence innovation activity and new business formation today. Prior research has studied the entrepreneurial culture investigating individuals’ perceptions, attitudes, values, and entrepreneurial personality fit. However, such approaches fail to address the importance of social representations of entrepreneurship as a part of entrepreneurial culture. The aim of this study is to increase understanding about the local entrepreneurial culture within entrepreneurial ecosystems by analysing local media representations of entrepreneurship as indications of local entrepreneurial cultures in the entrepreneurial ecosystem context. The research was carried out as a comparative study of two Finnish regions: Päijät-Häme and South Karelia. The primary research data consists of 120 newspaper articles from regional daily newspapers. The results suggest that in the studied regions local media particularly helps transmit entrepreneurial success stories as an ecosystem service. Also, narratives of entrepreneurial ambition, innovativeness and risk acceptance were transmitted to the local audiences. Some regional differences were also detected, which might reflect the different historical backgrounds and regional levels of entrepreneurial activity. This paper presents the preliminary results of the study which are of value for both ecosystem actors and policymakers designing initiatives to strengthen the local entrepreneurial culture and public discourse promoting entrepreneurship.