As Dimensões Latentes da Inovação: O Caso das Regiões Europeias

Abstract

Innovation has come to play, as crucial feature of economic development, an important role in regional economies and territorial policies. From the paradigm of Regional Innovation Systems and from different aspects that promote the innovative capacity of each region, this study analysed the 175 regions of European Union before enlargement (with 15 member-states), seeking to find the dimensions underlying the innovative phenomena and to create homogenous groups of regions that display similar profiles. Using 30 variables of Eurostat and European Trendchart on Innovation, Principal Component Factorial Analysis was used to reduce the dimension of data. Having determined the four main factors with significant results (Technological Innovation, Human Capital, Economic Structure and Availability of the Employment Market) what followed was a Cluster Analysis. This analysis showed the limitations and problems that still subsist in Portuguese regions when compared with other EU15 regions.