THE RIS UNDER SCRUTINY

METHODOLOGICAL DEBATE ON THE ‘REGIONAL INNOVATION SCOREBOARD’.

open innovation. To do this, we will modify the penalisation of Ács et al. (2014) and define the penalisation function as follows: ℎ !" = 𝑐𝑐 ! + 1 − 𝑒𝑒 ! ! !" ! ! ! , si 𝑐𝑐 ! > 𝑦𝑦 !" 𝑦𝑦 !" , en caso contrario Since, as the above model shows, the degree of openness or collaboration of the SMEs may represent a ceiling on innovation performance, this function will not, unlike Ács et al. (2014), penalise all indicators, but rather only those that are above the normalised collaboration in- dicator level. The new synthetic index, calculat - ed on the basis of these corrected indicators, will especially penalise those regions where the collaboration indicator is therefore lagging be- hind. Table 14 adds the RIS ranking penalised by the low openness of SMEs to the previous results. (TABLE 14) Unlike the general penalisation when apply- ing the methodology developed by Ács et al. (2014), the specific penalisation for open inno - vation as a bottleneck (column 6) shows a dif- ferent picture of regional innovation systems in Spain. Although some regions differ little from the RIS ranking (column 2), the situation of Spanish regions such as Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia is particularly interesting. The drop in the ranking of these regions when considering open innovation as a bottleneck shows much more fragmented innovation networks than re- gions that rank worse in conventional RIS rank- ings. Those territories that significantly worsen their relative position when considering open innovation as a bottleneck should therefore clearly orient their systems towards improving the degree of interaction between the different actors in their respective systems.

the degree of openness of the SMEs on innova- tion is increasing and is relatively independent of business R&D expenditure (given the close- ness of the three curves that each represent different levels of expenditure). The relationship in terms of the effect of R&D expenditure on innovation is also direct (graph on the right), but in this case depends on the degree of open- ness of SMEs (given the separation of the three curves that each represent different levels of openness). Empirical evidence therefore shows that the low level of openness of SMEs can be a “bottleneck” in the innovation performance of companies, generating a “ceiling” on the bene-

fits of business R&D expenditure. Something similar happens in the case of the relationship of these inputs with non-technological innova- tions and sales of innovations (as suggested in Figure 16). (FIGURE 16) The fact that there are bottlenecks between the factors in the RIS, and that these are overlooked by its synthetic index (as shown in Figure 15), opens a debate on its relevance in assessing a system's innovation capacity. Just as we penalise the RIS variables independently of the lagging variable (see Table 12), we will now do the same for a specific bottleneck:

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TABLE 14 The RIS and open innovation as a bottleneck in Span- ish regions Note: The robust RIS indicates the number of regions that have a significantly higher RIS than the region in question; the efficiency RIS indicates the number of regions that are more efficient than the region in question; penalised RIS I indicates the RIS ranking, penalising its indicators due to bottlenecks; penalised RIS II indicates the RIS ranking, penalising its indicators due to a bottleneck related to open innovation. The number of Spanish regions are shown in brackets. Source: Drafted in-house based on European Union (2021b)

SPANISH REGIONS

RANKINGS

ROBUST RIS

EFFICIENCY RIS

PENALISED I RIS

PENALISED II RIS

RIS

Andalusia Aragon Asturias

175 (13) 150 (6) 167 (11) 176 (14) 200 (17) 169 (12) 184 (15) 159 (9) 110 (3) 186 (16) 153 (8) 151 (7) 102 (2) 161 (10) 112 (4) 97 (1) 132 (5)

155 (14) 112 (7) 134 (11) 148 (13) 179 (17) 136 (12) 159 (15) 127 (10) 50 (3) 163 (16) 124 (8) 110 (6) 42 (1) 126 (9)

180 (10) 97 (4) 171 (9) 0 (1) 197 (13) 140 (6) 155 (7) 224 (15) 47 (2) 161 (8) 182 (11) 0 (1) 107 (5) 49 (3) 206 (14) 195 (12) 0 (1)

168 (13) 141 (6) 159 (11) 177 (15) 208 (17) 161 (12) 174 (14) 148 (8) 89 (2) 188 (16) 147 (7) 152 (9) 93 (3) 156 (10) 94 (4) 74 (1) 127 (5)

176 (13) 156 (8) 168 (10) 185 (15) 205 (17) 170 (12) 181 (14) 163 (9) 123 (3) 186 (16) 154 (7) 152 (6) 124 (4) 169 (11) 115 (2) 96 (1) 142 (5)

Balearic Islands Canary Islands Cantabria Castile-La Mancha Castile-Leon Catalonia Extremadura Galicia La Rioja Madrid Region Murcia Region Navarre Basque Country Valencia Region

59 (4) 45 (2) 70 (5)

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