The Role of Non-Rooted Social Institutions in the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Regional Innovation System

Abstract

A plethora of recent studies have highlighted the importance of non-rooted social institutions in influencing the effectiveness of regional innovation systems (RIS), and therefore the development of formal and informal organizational and institutional innovations that contribute to socio-economic development. Non-rooted social institutions refer to various organizations, networks, and collaborations that are not directly involved in research or production activities, but still exert a significant influence on regional innovation processes. These institutions can include government agencies responsible for policy-making and funding allocations for innovation programs at the regional level, professional associations promoting knowledge sharing and collaboration among industry professionals across regions, venture capital firms providing financial resources to startups and entrepreneurs, incubators and accelerators offering support services to early-stage ventures, as well as non-profit organizations focusing on community engagement and entrepreneurship education. Our paper focuses on the main rooted and non-rooted social institutions of the RIS systems using a case study of the Russian Federation. Moreover, it determines the degree of their influence on the assessment of their effectiveness. Furthermore, the paper explains that under conditions of economic stability in a region with different levels of innovative potential, the influence of different social institutions on RIS is determined differently. In conditions of economic instability, unrooted social institutions begin to play a key and decisive role. Based on the results of our study, we draw some conclusions regarding the need to take into account external socio-economic factors in the development of tools for assessing the effectiveness of regional innovation systems.