Convenor
Convenor's affiliation
Guendalina Anzolin
University of Cambridge
Co-convenors
Elvira Uyarra, Federica Rossi, Simon Collinson
Abstract
Value creation and value capture mechanisms in the digital economy are characterised by complex product and process innovations and a high technological interrelation and cumulativeness. The actors in charge of the innovation process have also changed, for example, the decline of big corporate R&D labs and the emergence of service engineering specialised firms and of technology start-ups, together with the growing importance of innovation intermediaries, have changed the landscape of innovation ecosystems in many sectors and regions. This track explores the key role played by innovation intermediaries in terms of orchestrating innovation and knowledge transfer by filling scaling-up/commercialisation gaps along the innovation cycle. Such organisations are also becoming key players within regional ecosystems and are likely to increasingly contribute to regional restructuring and diversification processes through related and unrelated innovation processes, leveraging their role as knowledge repositories and facilitators within and across industrial value chain structures.
Description
Over the past two decades, regions have faced mounting pressures to transform their productive structures in response to the diffusion of digital technologies, the imperative of greener growth, renewed geopolitical tensions and repeated shocks, including the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic (Martin et al., 2016). On the technological front, knowledge transfer has become more intricate as modern technologies evolve through frequent gaps, dead ends, and coordination failures (Antonelli, 2010). These dynamics have widened the space for public intervention to address system failures and coordinate a proliferating set of actors and activities that underpin innovation and industrial capability building (Flanagan et al., 2022). A prominent avenue for such intervention is the funding and empowerment of innovation intermediaries (IIs) (Caloffi et al., 2023; Holland et al., 2024). Encompassing a variety of organisations that include research and technology organisations, incubators, and knowledge-intensive business service firms, IIs translate early-stage ideas into scalable, usable products and processes. They orchestrate networks, fill gaps along innovation cycles (Arnold et al., 2010), and convene cross-sectoral coalitions to tackle complex problems (Rossi et al., 2022).
These shifts, and the growing centrality of IIs, require a fundamental reconsideration of their roles, functions, and activities in regional development. Recent scholarship frames IIs as “boundary organisations” (Chataway et al., 2019; Hanlin et al., 2018) operating at the interfaces of universities, firms, and governments. Their business models, revenue streams, and portfolios have evolved markedly over the past three decades (Preissl and Farina, 2000; Larrue and Strauka, 2022; Rossi et al., 2022), shaped by the institutional and production ecosystems in which they are embedded. IIs are redefining how knowledge is created, scaled, and captured in specific places, and how regional innovation policy is conceived and implemented (Kitagawa et al., 2025).
IIs are thus pivotal within regional ecosystems and increasingly positioned to steer restructuring and diversification. Even when they lack an explicit regional mandate, they operate within dynamic local contexts where institutional, technological, and economic linkages continually evolve, and there is a growing emphasis on reinforcing a regional mandate (Bonvillian, 2017; Anzolin and O’Sullivan, 2025). At the same time, the structure of an ecosystem conditions the design and functioning of IIs and is crucial for supporting the processes of knowledge search and generation to which they contribute (Reischauer et al., 2021). By leveraging their roles as repositories, shapers, and facilitators of knowledge creation and transfer in specific places/clusters within and across industrial value chains, IIs can drive both related and unrelated diversification (Randhawa et al., 2022).
While there has been growing scholarly attention to innovation intermediaries, the focus has not often been on their relationships with the place (region, cluster) where they operate. This thematic track invites scholars to reflect on the role of innovation intermediaries (and their managers) in knowledge transfer processes at the regional and local level. We welcome empirical, methodological and conceptual papers related to (but not limited to) the following research questions:
1. Which organisational forms of IIs (public, private, hybrid) are best suited to the achievement of various regional policy objectives, and should policy selectively fund some models over others?
2. What regional or/and sectoral failures are different types of IIs trying to solve, and how does this shape their knowledge transfer activities over time?
3.How are IIs engaging with different types of regional actors in order to support institutional, economic and/or societal change within the region? How do IIs make sure to align with SMEs and other actors' needs?
4. What local organisational structures maximise efficiency and absorptive capacity for SMEs in a given ecosystem?
5. What capabilities do IIs need to possess and/or develop to contribute to regional development and restructuring processes?
6. What role do intermediaries play in workforce activities and skill formation at regional level?
The track proponents are currently developing a proposal for a Special Issue of a high-impact-factor regional studies journal on the topics mentioned in this track proposal. Should the Special Issue proposal be accepted, we will advertise the Special Issue to potential participants in the track and invite promising papers which could eventually be submitted to the Special Issue.