Assessing Regional Innovation Policy on Local Public Technology Centers in Japan

Local public technology centers, administrated by local authorities, engage in technology transfer to small local firms. Current structural changes in regional innovation systems force them to redefine strategy to contribute to regional development. Based on the comprehensive dataset to describe resource allocation strategy of local public technology centers and the model to describe the characteristics of regional innovation systems, this study examines fit between the two. The results indicate that resource allocation strategy does not seem to accord with regional innovation system, which implies that regional innovation policy for technology transfer might have been inefficient. Theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed