Industrial Hotspots and Mechanisms for Innovation

- Regional Innovation in International Strategic Comprehensive Special Zones -

Abstract

This study demonstrates the impact of firms' proactive behavior and region-specific characteristics on innovation creation in their respective research centers in the basement of industrial clusters, known as hotspots. We identify private-sector research hubs located in international strategic integrated special zones in Japan and perform multivariate analysis on the number of patent applications by firm. The novelty lies in that the regional empirical results limited by policy clarify the innovation mechanism within the region, thus theoretically contributing to regional innovation and industrial cluster theories.