Portuguese regional innovation systems efficiency in the European Union context

Abstract

Current evidence on European regional innovation systems efficiency shows some conflicting results. Whereas some studies find support to a core-periphery distribution of efficiency, others find that lagging regions can be as well or even more efficient than rich regions in using their resources. This paper contributes to this debatable topic by providing additional evidence on the main determinants of the region's innovation efficiency and on efficiency differentials across EU regional innovation systems. Using data from 206 European regions and applying a stochastic production frontier methodology, our results corroborate the importance of interactions among regional agents on the region's efficiency score. More importantly, the distribution of efficiency scores across regional innovation systems does not entirely confirm the core-periphery divide among European regions. Instead, the mode of doing innovation appears to be a crucial explanatory factor of innovation efficiency at regional level. In the case of Portuguese regional innovation systems, they perform slightly below the average of their EU counterparts, except Lisbon's, and appear to be constrained by their mode of doing innovation.