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Combining knowledge bases for system innovation in regions: Insights from an East German case study

Christoph Friedich and Daniel Feser

sofia Diskussionsbeiträge 2021, No. 8 https://doi.org/10.46850/sofia.9783941627956

This study aims to connect the literature strand on the geography of sustainability transitions with knowledge bases in regions. Thecontributions are threefold. First, the study investigates the recombination of knowledge bases in the regional knowledge transfer between academic and non-academic actors. This extends Strambach’s (2017) transnational approach to a regional level. Second, the study extends the empirical insights into universities, providing regionally relevant knowledge and accelerators for sustainability-oriented innovations that enable transformation processes (Pflitsch and Radinger-Peer 2018). Third, the case study presents exploratory insights with a dynamic perspective to examine the knowledge transfer of the EUSD and three affiliated regional intermediary organizations in the period between 1992, the year the Eberswalde University was founded, and 2020.

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