Regional innovation patterns from an evolutionary perspective

Regional innovation patterns from an evolutionary perspective. Regional Studies. Based on the conceptual notion and empirical verification that innovation follows differentiated spatial patterns, the paper analyses the conditions that enable changes in regional innovation patterns. Consistently with evolutionary theory, these changes are interpreted as path-dependent processes characterized by trajectories and paradigms, understood as learning processes. The novelty of the work rests on the adaptation of creation, diversification and upgrading pathways – generally used in the literature to explain changes in development paradigms – to the interpretation of changes in learning trajectories and paradigms, and on the empirical validation of this conceptual underpinning.