THE CONCEPT OF INNOVATIVE MILIEU AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR PUBLIC POLICIES IN EUROPEAN LAGGING REGIONS

ABSTRACT This paper deals with the concept of innovative miliena as developed by the GREMI group, and its relevance in the context of tagging regions. The concept was originally developed for the case of successful new industrial regions, where the presence of district economies and of wide synergies among local actors gives rise to fast innovation processes. However, such elements are hardly present in weak economic contexts. On the basis of both theoretical and empirical analyses, the relevance of the concept is reaftirmed. This is mainly for normative purposes, since innovation miliena are present in lagging regions only in potential and not fully developed forms.