The model of a regional innovation system: national and foreign approaches

The article covers the theoretical and methodological approaches to the assessment of regional innovation systems. Under the difficult economic conditions, the key factor for the development of regional economy is that of the regional innovation system (RIS). Despite the great interest to regional innovation development, there is still a number of topical issues regarding the structure of RIS, the methodology for its evaluation and analysis, mechanisms and tools of its development. National and foreign approaches to studying regional innovation systems differ significantly. Foreign studies are cluster-oriented and take into account the macro-context, the interaction of RIS and the external environment. Methods in works by Russian specialists evaluate regional innovation systems through innovative potential, innovative activity. The author specifies common features of the approaches, as well as their differences. The necessity to take into account the concept of triple helix innovation as a releaser for RIS is emphasized. The article analyzes the proximity of the goals and objectives of RIS and clusters, the relation between RIS and innovation infrastructure of universities. The main participants of RIS, their functions and distribution in subsystems are identified. The author suggests his own approach to the structure of RIS, which implies that the cluster potential, involvement into the world economy and socio-economic development of the region, to some extent, can be regarded as subsystems of RIS, and thus form its complexity. The structural model is presented by subsystems, interacting between each other and with the external environment, that describe the conditions and the process of generation, diffusion and use of new knowledge and technologies. Based on the complex approach, the model of a regional innovation system is proposed as a set of subsystems that describe the process of generation-transfer-commercialization diffusion of new knowledge and technologies. The model takes into account relations in the triple helix of innovation and interaction with and between subsystems of the region's cluster potential, as well as involvement of the region into the world economy and socio-economic development of the region. The interaction between subsystems is a necessary condition for the existence of an innovation system. The interaction with the environment speeds up the circulation of knowledge flows within the system, which provides higher speed of innovations. In the proposed model regional specialization is represented through the cluster potential, which ensures the diffusion of new knowledge and technologies. The author's model of RIS can be taken as a basis for the development of a methodological approach to the assessment of RIS, its components and interactions. Evaluation of RIS is necessary to determine the organizational-economic mechanism for managing its development.