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314 Int. J. Knowledge-Based Development, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2015
1 Introduction
known about how to actively build these communities in particular places to stimulate
KBUD. Instruments and policies need to be developed to embed knowledge communities
within emergent knowledge districts. Lau and Lo (2015) add to this insight by
highlighting the critical role of regional actors in science and technology and regional
innovation policies in creating appropriate contexts for knowledge creation and transfer.
They believe that studying the regional actors’ absorptive capacity (AC) is crucial for
understanding the region’s capacity to innovate and achieve global competitiveness.
This study aims to elaborate on the above debate by incorporating some of the local
activities related to the KCP and AC in an extended KBUD model, building on cluster
and science park literature. An extended model that takes into consideration elements of
the AC of regional actors can contribute to a better analysis of how local communities
engage and enrol external actors and embed their resources into these precinct
communities. The model framework will be tested in the Limburg region in the southern
Netherlands. In this region, similar to the Enschede region, urban upgrading has taken
place in recent years involving the promotion of increased connectivity between public
and private parties and knowledge institutions through the development of science parks
and incubators.
In this article, an extended KBUD framework will be developed and tested by means
of a case-study method. This KBUD framework will analyse the strengths and
weaknesses of the economic development program of the Limburg region as well as its
most important opportunities and threats. The design of this article is as follows:
Section 2 will introduce the KBUD literature and the conceptual framework. In Section 3,
an extended framework will be introduced that also includes aspects of AC necessary for
successful cross-over. In Section 4, the research context will be introduced. The extended
framework will be applied to the case of the Limburg region in Section 5, and in
Section 6 the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will be
presented. Finally, results and conclusions will be presented in Section 7.
Innovation in the current knowledge-based economy does not just involve the use of
knowledge in new products, but is often determined by bringing together and merging
existing knowledge in a transdisciplinary manner; by networks interconnecting tasks,
people, technologies, firms and markets; and by an amalgam of knowledge, technology
and local culture and creativity (Hearn, 2008). This study aims to further conceptualise
the concept of KBUD by combining theories on KBUD with the concept of AC in order
to design a model that can connect the phenomenon of KBUD to the performance of
urban areas.
Knight (2008), Kunzmann (2008), Yigitcanlar (2009) and van Wezemael (2012) refer
to the concept of KBUD to capture the performance of a city or urban region as a
complex and multifaceted phenomenon. According to Yigitcanlar and Lönnqvist (2013),
the concept has become popular in many urban regions that aim to increase their
competitive edge, attract talent and investment and provide prosperity and a high quality
of life to their inhabitants.
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 317
van Wezemael (2012) emphasises the heterogeneous context of KBUD, which can
offer a rich potential to seek alternative urban transitions. Fernandez-Maldonado and
Romein (2010) in this respect underline that for a KBUD to be sustainable a proper
balance between three KBUD perspectives is required to deliver concrete projects and
initiatives:
1 economic quality, which depends on a good business climate to produce prosperity
2 socio-spatial quality, which is based on a positive people climate for all people
3 organisational quality, which depends on coherence and consensus in the urban
region and an effective interaction between main stakeholders (i.e., government,
university, industry).
Yigitcanlar (2011) adds to this view that besides economic prosperity, socio-spatial order
and good governance KBUD should encourage environmental sustainability. As such, a
sustainable KBUD is concerned with economic, societal and spatial (both the built and
natural environment) development along with institutional development as an enabler of
the former three (see Figure 1). In order to sustain the necessary balance as suggested by
Fernandez-Maldonado and Romein (2010) between the four KBUD pillars, however,
cooperation in and between the pillars is essential. In the conceptual framework of
Yigitcanlar and Lönnqvist (2013) this cooperation is mainly shaped within the
institutional pillar, which serves as the enabler of the former three. Nevertheless,
increasingly in such prosperous knowledge milieus cooperation is stimulated by other
mechanisms that are less institutional and more ‘demand driven’.
Socio-
economic
development
KBUD
acquisition Enviro-
Economic assimilation urban
development transformation development
exploitation
Institutional
development
creative individuals, not firms, and that clustering supports collective learning in a city or
region. Individuals are keya, as the AC of the enterprise (whether private or social) will
depend on individuals who stand at the crossroad of the firm and the external
environment (Spithoven et al., 2010). For a cluster to thrive trust is important (Markusen,
1996). However, places must also be sufficiently porous allowing transient ideas and
people to pass by, generating an atmosphere of creative novelty (de Propris and
Hypponen, 2008). Further, co-location and coordination of overlapping but previously
unrelated sectors stimulates radical innovations (de Propris et al., 2009).
In order to create a proper balance between the four main pillars of KBUD, in a
sustainable KBUD, an environment needs to be created where people connect and
combine. This is also known as AC, which traditionally refers to a firm’s ability to create
and arrange the knowledge for developing operational capabilities to achieve a
competitive advantage (Zahra and George, 2002; Lane et al., 2006; Sun and Anderson,
2010). It is embedded in the systems, processes and routines of a firm (Todorova and
Durisin, 2007). AC generally entails four distinctive but complementary learning
processes: acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation (Zahra and George,
2002). In Figure 1 these four forms of AC are depicted at the heart of the KBUD
conceptual framework, which implies that AC is essential to create KBUD. Acquisition
hereby refers to a regional actor’s (in the literature, generally firms) ability to identify and
acquire external knowledge that is important to its business. Assimilation refers to the
routines and processes that a regional actor uses to analyse, process, interpret and
understand the acquired information. Transformation refers to a regional actor’s ability to
build and purify the routines that combine existing knowledge with newly acquired
expertise. Lastly, exploitation refers to a regional actor’s ability to exploit existing and
transformed knowledge into its operations.
Science park and cluster literature have highlighted an extensive list of factors that can be
considered crucial for successful knowledge-based development in any designated area.
There is empirical evidence linking clusters to economic benefits including increased
firm productivity (Madsen et al., 2003; Szforzi, 1990), entrepreneurship (Feldman, 2001;
Guiso and Schivardi, 2007; Rocha and Sternberg, 2005; Rosenthal and Strange, 2005),
local employment growth (Audretsch and Dohse, 2004; Fingleton et al., 2008; Wennberg
and Lindqvist, 2008) and local wages (Brenner and Gildner, 2006; Porter, 2003; Wheaton
and Lewis, 2002). For our extended framework, we have chosen to elaborate in particular
on the findings of a study on clusters, innovation and entrepreneurship of the OECD
(2009) that studied seven internationally important bio-technology clusters (Grenoble,
France; Vienna, Austria; Waterloo, Canada; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Dunedin, New
Zealand; Oxfordshire, UK; Medicon Valley, Sweden/Denmark). Biotechnology is often
considered a sector for which clustering has particular benefits because it relies heavily
on the transfer of tacit knowledge. Our aim is to construct an extended framework to
asses KBUD that also includes the human capital and social capital elements that are
necessary for successful new combinations by integrating key factors and obstacles
highlighted in the OECD (2009) report in the different pillars of the KBUD framework.
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 319
In the next paragraph, we will test our extended framework on the Maastricht region and
cluster developments that are taking place there, as part of the central goals of Brainport
2020.
Both industry and researchers see active management as a defining condition to science
parks and incubation activities (Amirahmadi and Saff, 1993). In particular, it is important
to create policies which encourage the emergence of new activities in complementary
knowledge sectors to the existing base of the cluster in order to make sure innovations
evolve at the same pace as knowledge. Leading enterprises and universities and research
centres of international reputation are essential elements for growth. They are the
fundament of entrepreneurial activities in an area.
promote the products and innovations in the market. Cooperation with the private sector
can in this respect be beneficial. Establishing a marketing centre for products resulting
from academic research located in the very heart of university is an innovative approach
tried in Ontario (Wolfe, 2009). The centre serves as a public relations bureau linking the
economic reality of the results of academic research and vice-versa, so as better to
identify a potential market. Also, the OECD (2009) argues that universities can play a
more important role in marketing if they have an active intellectual property policy.
knowledge exchange, both between tenants but also the wider environment (Bigliardi
et al., 2006; Ratinho and Henriques, 2010). Social networks, people-oriented services,
communications and infrastructure are some of the many elements which have an impact
on the attraction and retention of the highly skilled population. Infrastructure, in this
respect, deserves extra attention. The rapid recent economic growth of the clusters studies
by the OECD (2009), for example, has in some cases led to significant problems of
congestion in their host agglomerations that impeded further growth, particularly where
the cluster dominated the agglomeration and there was little capacity to expand the
agglomeration because of planning or physical constraints. Strong growth in constrained
agglomerations was particularly associated with rising land and property prices, rising
wage costs, increasing commuting times and transport problems.
In order to maintain the quality of the environment, the OECD suggests measures to
improve:
a Accessibility of road traffic to reduce congestion. The creation of free car parks on
the outskirts of town is suggested. This seemed to have had good results in
Oxfordshire (Lawton Smith, 2009).
b Increased investment in local communications infrastructure.
c Increased investment in public transport is suggested to alleviate road congestion
problems.
d Planning policies that disperse activity out of the more congested parts of the
agglomeration could be considered, although they should not be implemented at the
cost of the environmental qualities of the region.
This can lead to local opposition.
informal exchanges to be just as important as those which take place around a working
table.
3.6 Performance
The economic performance can be measured in a variety of ways, for example by looking
at the total life sciences turnover in a region. Cluster development also leads to a
considerable growth in the number of new and small firms and employment. With regard
to the latter, in the case of Medicon Valley in the border region of Denmark and Sweden,
empirical data shows that the employment in life sciences activity has increased by 30%
in Denmark and 40% in Sweden during the period 1997–2009. Further, clusters are often
associated with a strong fabric of SMEs, which often draw on collaborations with a few
key large enterprises and/or universities and research organisations for their innovation
and competitiveness. In Medicon Valley, for example, the strong industrial base shows a
clear predominance of large companies (mainly pharma), with some medium sized
companies in med-tech and therapeutics and reinforced by the inflow of foreign
companies, among them some world-leading pharmaceuticals (del Carmen et al., 2012).
The new biotech start-ups that were created (146 in the period 1997–2006 in Denmark),
are predominantly involved in drug discovery and development or diagnostics. Many of
them were launched as university spin-offs (55%) but a considerable number of them
(45%) were spin-outs from the large pharmaceutical companies, mainly on the Danish
side.
Although, in our extensive model, we will focus on the measurement of economic
performance in the more traditional sense, there is a growing need to develop advanced
performance measures that also take into consideration economic, social, and
environmental sustainability relating to urban regeneration. In a sustainable city, all
decisions taken are based on an evaluation of whether their consequences will be
beneficial to sustainable development within the city. At the moment, there is no
international policy regarding sustainable cities and there are no established international
standards. On a European Union level, however, practical tools to be used in strategic
target-setting could be the commitments of the Aalborg Charter (1994). The Charter is an
urban environment sustainability initiative approved by the participants at the first
European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns in Aalborg, Denmark. It is inspired
by the Rio Earth Summit’s Local Agenda 21 plan, and was developed to contribute to the
European Union’s environmental action program, ‘towards sustainability’. The Charter’s
commitments encompass a list of qualitative objectives organised into ten holistic
themes, namely:
1 governance
2 urban management
3 natural common goods
4 responsible consumption
5 planning and design
6 better mobility
7 local action for health
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 325
Performance
Turnover
Firms
Jobs
Absorptive quality
a) formal projects for
collaboration
b) involving non-members
c) communicating benefits
d) (informal) meeting spaces
Institutional quality
a) strong (triple-helix)
partnerships
b) joint strategy
c) encourage new
activities
Figure 2 gives a schematic overview of the extended model structure and the main
indicators that determine the successfulness of a cluster policy or KBUD. For example,
the evaluation of KBUD policy in the paper of Romein et al. (2011) was based on only
one indicator, i.e., growth of employment, being the main objective of these policies in
the city of Delft. For a broader diversity of schemes to measure performance, a reference
can be made to the overview of evaluation studies of science parks as planning tool by
van Geenhuizen and Soetanto (2008).
326 P. van Hemert and P.L. Iske
4 Research context
In this study, the Limburg region will serve as a case study for further analysis of KBUD.
Located in a geographically peripheral, slightly closed and economically depressed area
in the 1970s, Limburg has turned into an ambitious, confident and progressive region
within Europe. This turnaround had a lot to do with the successful restructuring process
that Limburg, and especially South Limburg, underwent after the closing of the mines in
1965–1975. Undoubtedly, the process of European integration also served as a catalyst.
Since 2000, KBUD in Limburg has further intensified with a strong focus on
entrepreneurship, and strong collaboration between industry, knowledge institutes and
government in the triple helix and participative involvement of civic society in several
focal sectors, namely chemistry and materials and life sciences and health with
increasingly strong crossovers to logistics, agro-food, care, energy, smart services and
leisure (LED, 2014). On a national policy level, Limburg is increasingly considered part
of the larger economic area Brainport Southeast Netherlands. According to this national
development policy, the development of the Dutch economy supports on three
geographical pillars; Airport Amsterdam, Seaport Rotterdam and Brainport Southeast
Netherlands.
Despite the large scale investments in the economy in the past years, however,
Limburg is still facing a demographic transition in terms of stagnating population growth
and an ageing society. Population shrinkage in Limburg is largely due to declining
employment in traditional manufacturing sectors and the related migration to other
regions in the Netherlands. For long, it was more convenient for people from the Limburg
area to move to central regions, where one could choose from a large supply and a wide
variety of jobs. Increasingly, policy interventions have been initiated in Limburg that aim
to revitalise the Limburg economy. To become an attractive region, a vital economy, a
dynamic labour market, strong job creation and attractive living conditions are essential.
So far, however, not all of these conditions seem to be sufficiently addressed in the
development policy of the Limburg region. R&D investments in Limburg have been
declining, whereas R&D investments in the Netherlands have increased. Also, Limburg
shows a declining share in total Dutch GDP due to stagnating population growth in
Limburg (Martinez-Fernandez et al., 2013).
So, similar to the case-study of Benneworth and Ratinho (2014b), despite the efforts
of policy makers, the position of the Limburg region is not at the same level of
Eindhoven region yet. In particular, lack of improvements in the cross-city connectivity
elements was considered an important bottleneck in the Enschede case-study. By means
of the extended KBUD model, we aim to investigate if similar bottlenecks can be
discerned in the Limburg region.
In this section, our aim is to test the KBUD or cluster developments of the Limburg
region by means of the model introduced in the previous section. Limburg is the most
southern province of the Netherlands bordering Germany and Belgium. It is located
between the main metropolitan areas of Europe: Randstad Holland and Brussels to the
west and the German Rhine-Ruhr area to the east. Limburg is renowned for its logistics
expertise, industrial focus and multilingual labour force. The area’s key industries are:
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 327
into the government’s policy to put Southeast Netherlands Brainport on the map.
Brainport is destined to become one of the economic engines of the Netherlands together
with Seaport (Rotterdam) and Main Port (Amsterdam). The Chemelot Campus, according
to a study by the Dutch government, is already a campus of national importance and the
Maastricht campus also has that potential.
Other educational and research institutions (MBO/HBO), local authorities (Sittard –
Geleen, Heerlen and Maastricht) and the regional development agency LIOF are also
involved in the campus development in South Limburg. The Limburg Economic
Development Foundation (LED) is a partnership between local business, government and
education that supports the realisation of the Brainport 2020 program in South Limburg,
whereby LED concentrates in particular on SMEs and on achieving the €5 billion
revenue increase in SMEs in the context of Brainport 2020.
third behind North Brabant and Utrecht as successful innovation region, analysis shows
that this position is mainly based on the investments in R&D of the multinational
companies. We can therefore conclude that in particular entrepreneurship needs to be
further stimulated in order to successfully boost competitiveness in the Limburg region.
Overall, four investment programs are initiated to achieve the additional increase of
gross regional product in South Limburg (LED, 2014):
• €1 billion revenue increase can be achieved through additional investments that will
take place in multinational companies. An example is the investment of VDL/Nedcar
in the production of the new BMW Mini from mid-2014 in Sittard Geleen.
• €2.5 billion can be realised by the investments of the Province, DSM, Maastricht
University and AZM in the development of the Chemelot Campus and Maastricht
Health Campus.
• €2.5 billion can be realised indirectly as a result of the developments of both
campuses for regional SMEs.
• €2.5 billion can be realised by profit increase of regional SMEs in other leading
sectors.
The knowledge axis Limburg, however, is broader than South Limburg and also includes
North and Central Limburg. Together with the three Brabant areas they form the six
Brainport 2020 sub regions. As a result, Greenport Venlo also forms part of the initiatives
to turn the campuses in the Limburg region into attractive locations with a strong appeal
to existing and new entrepreneurs, knowledge workers and leading research and teaching.
Greenport Venlo is one of the six Greenports in the Netherlands and is regarded as the
most versatile horticultural area of Europe. It is an inter-regional network of
entrepreneurs, research, education and government in the areas of food, fresh flowers
with a strong relationship to logistics and manufacturing industry.
Another more recent campus initiative in the region that has been adopted by the
larger Brainport 2020 program is the Smart Services Hub. The Smart Services Hub is
unique triple-helix cooperation among 18 participants in the Heerlen region. Within this
partnership, smart solutions are developed in the field of HRM and innovation for
financial and business services. Background to this campus initiative is that the current
developments in the field of big data are revolutionary. Never before has it been possible
to collect as much data to analyse smart and other data link. And ultimately translate into
user applications. However, the current knowledge of staff and students does not yet meet
the market demands. The initiators of the Smart Services Hub believe that this
quantitative and qualitative mismatch with the labour market can be averted with new
policies, innovations in curricula and training and retraining.
With the accelerated development of the campuses, Limburg aims to become world
leading in the field of developing and launching new products such as biomaterials in the
market. The campuses already account for 55% of the patents, 45% of private R&D
investments and 35% of the Dutch exports (Provincie Limburg, 2012). The Chemelot
Campus is considered one of the six campuses of national importance.
The Material and Life Sciences Chemelot Campus in Sittard – Geleen has proved
successful in the past period and acts as a magnet. Since its start in 2005, there are
43 new companies, accounting for thousands of new jobs. These are companies that like
to work with multinational companies such as DSM and SABIC, but also global and now
330 P. van Hemert and P.L. Iske
established on campus innovative SMEs. The campus is located on the Chemelot site,
and with 800 acres and 5,500 knowledge workers is one of the largest chemical and
materials complexes in Europe. A short distance away lies the Maastricht Health
Campus, also an economic growth engine with 7,500 employees and a 40 companies,
including renowned players like Medtronic and Boston Scientific.
Public funds for innovative SMEs are also made available. Recently, the formation of
the Chemelot venture fund was completed by the Province, LIOF, DSM and Rabobank.
With a volume of approximately €40 million, it is one of the largest venture funds of the
Netherlands (LED, 2014). Also, it is one of the most prominent examples of quadruple
helix cooperation in the Netherlands, because, at a very early stage, a financial services
provider (here: Rabobank) is co-venturing the financial support of innovative enterprises
in a cluster (Rabobank, 2014). Initiatives for general campus information centres are also
being developed. The Chemelot Campus Experience will be situated in a building called
the ‘Centrecourt’. The project aims to bring technical innovations in the limelight,
interest students for technical education and help SMEs on the campuses.
Similar initiatives have been launched at the Maastricht Health Campus. On 29
October 2013, the Brains Unlimited scanning lab was launched. Brains Unlimited is a
European Centre of Excellence for ultra-high magnetic field MRI and neuroscience in
Maastricht. Through an integrated platform for imaging community, scientists and
companies are better able to find the key to common diseases such as Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s, epilepsy and MS and gain more insight into the evolution of human
behaviour. Brains Unlimited also provides knowledge transfer and stimulates
entrepreneurship in the specific field of mental health and cognitive neuroscience. For
this purpose, mid 2012, an incubator was made available.
recruited at the national, regional, Euroregion and international level (LED, 2014).
Socio-economic focus of the Brainport 2020 policy for Limburg is therefore focused on
the exploitation of the cross-border opportunities, both in terms of the development of
new knowledge institutions in the field of labour. But focus is also on increasing the
participation of the regional workforce and the stimulation of the number of students
choosing for a study and career in engineering and other strategic sectors in the region.
Already, Maastricht UMC+ et al. (2013) have realised projects in the field of
development of new knowledge and training, in line with the needs of the business.
Examples of new knowledge projects are Brains Unlimited, Bachelor Science Degree,
CHILL, EIZT and Neber. The ‘knowledge axis (Kennis/As)’ policy initiatives have given
these developments an additional (financial) boost. Also, other important steps have been
the development of the Maastricht Aachen Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM)
and the Institute for Science and Technology (Inscite). The vocational courses work on a
quality improvement in the field of technical vocational (Top Technology in Business) in
line with the national Technology Pact to fulfil the needs at subject level. On a
government level, the central government, but for the most part the province, are
financially heavily involved in these large-scale investment programs.
Due to the strong emphasis on attracting talent, the region is also aware that housing
issues (housing and living environment) should be higher on the agenda in order to
increase attractiveness of the region and improve ‘quality of life’. So far, however, a
stronger focus on housing issues has only been addressed as a recommendation for South
Limburg for their 2014 program by public result, an urban development bureau that
assesses the progress and implementation of the economic program in South Limburg
(LED, 2014). According to public result, such a ‘quality of life’ housing policy should
also actively involve the smaller municipalities in the region.
In order to stimulate cooperation between the campuses, several smaller and larger
infrastructural projects are considered to contribute to further exchange, like the
construction of the A2-tunnel. In Maastricht, for two kilometres the A2 is interrupted by a
motorway (with traffic) and is called N2. The N2 runs through Maastricht and regularly
causes congestion, door and noise. After years of lobbying by the municipality, the road
will be tunnelled over several years. The tunnel will be placed under the current
trajectory of the N2, which will become a green zone in Maastricht. Also, the tunnel
consists of an upper part (traffic) and a lower part (through traffic), each with 2 × 2 lanes.
The tunnels will be constructed above the other. The highest point of the tunnel will be
1.5 metres below ground. Above that is the green zone.
There thus appears a strong realisation that good connections between the knowledge
clusters are essential, as well as good connections between cross-border knowledge
regions like Aken, Luik and Leuven. Therefore, focus lies on improving the (inter)
national accessibility of the central cities and economic clusters in particular through
public transport and road network, as well as promoting cross-border commuting in
favour of employment and education (Gebiedsagenda Limburg, 2011).
With regards to the communication infrastructure, a roll-out strategy is designed to
accelerate and broaden the construction of the digital infrastructure in Southeast
Netherlands. These are so-called next generation access (NGA) networks: digital
networks with blazing speed, including fibre glass. At present, approximately 15% of the
homes and businesses in Southeast Netherlands have connection to NGA broadband
networks (Brainport 2020, 2011).
the right partners. The latter is essential. During a stakeholder conference consisting of
200 partners of LED on 18 December 2013, it was agreed that for 2014 strengthening the
involvement of regional SMEs should become top priority (LED, 2014). Also, an in line
with the previous recommendation, it was agreed that further commitment is necessary to
strengthen the chain density as a condition for increasing the innovativeness of SMEs.
Compared to Eindhoven, the development of business networks and supra regional
contacts falls behind in the (south) Limburg region. Companies apparently find each
other too little and work less than elsewhere together to develop new products and bring
these products to market.
During the LED stakeholder conference the importance of the chain density was
explained as follows: the regional economic desired effect is strongly dependent on the
extent to which companies within one and the same region work together in the chain,
innovate together and produce for each other. This effect is further enhanced when the
staff also comes from the region and the wage income is spent in the same region.
So far, chain density is stimulated mainly through so called ‘acceleration tables
(versnellingstafels)’, stimulating active participation of SMEs in the innovation projects
of LIOF and LED, and the Limburg makers program.
In the coming years, the ‘acceleration tables’ must both lead to quicker and more
specific project proposals, and also increase the number of SMEs participating in campus
projects. ‘Acceleration tables’ usually consist of a relatively small group of five or six
people with an external consultant, from different disciplines, but with enough interfaces.
In a short time, about four sessions, the idea is to get some innovative ideas on the table
and to become acquainted with different methodologies, leading to concrete projects for
participating SMEs. These projects are then presented to LED for core funding. In this
way, the acceleration tables are the breeding ground of new products and business
activity.
The Limburg makers program aims to structurally reinforce the competitiveness of
the manufacturing industry in Limburg. The ambition is to use a mix of activities and
tools to stimulate the creation of new products or services over a period of three years to
achieve execution ready business plans to support performance improvement and actively
strengthen or realise one or more networks of industrial enterprises, knowledge and
educational institutions. Networking is stimulated in workshops and ‘bootcamps’ and
also subsidies are made available to gain access to knowledge in other companies or
knowledge institutions.
According to the stakeholders present at the LED conference, what SMEs in the
Limburg region need is support in making knowledge and finding the right partners. The
latter is essential. Several other studies highlight the positive relationship that exists for
SMEs between cooperation with (large and/or foreign) firms and product innovation
(Hessels, 2012). To turn ideas into innovation, SMEs will thus have to find knowledge
partners, preferably large or foreign. There are already various programs for specific
sectors in which the parties are brought together, but an important objective is to involve
SMEs more explicitly in Brainport 2020 and LED initiatives.
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 335
Figure 4 PCT patent applications per million inhabitants in 2010 (see online version for colours)
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Figure 5 PCT patent applications per million inhabitants (see online version for colours)
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Noord-Brabant Limburg (NL)
Note: Fractional count; by inventor and priority year in Noord-Brabant and Limburg.
Source: OECD Regional Database, selection of peer regions in knowledge
and technology hubs category
336 P. van Hemert and P.L. Iske
Figure 7 Employment rate in Noord-Brabant and Limburg (see online version for colours)
(€ 300 million). The (+combination of the leading position of the export-oriented industry
in North Brabant and the positive outlook for, in particular, foreign demand is the growth
engine of this province. The three provinces that make the largest contributions to the
Dutch GDP are South Holland (22%), North Holland (18%) and North Brabant (15%).
These are also the three provinces that show the highest economic growth after
Flevoland.
Table 2 Economic growth Dutch provinces in 2013 and 2014
Construction, wholesale and care are currently less popular. In absolute numbers, South
Limburg has the highest number of starters, but the strongest growth is in North Limburg.
The number of start-ups in North Limburg shows a clear growth in the first three
quarters of 2013. In the Netherlands, their number is growing by 1.9%, while the number
of new businesses in North Limburg is more than 12% higher than a year earlier. In
Central Limburg, the number of start-ups increased in 2013. In the first three quarters of
2013, growth was almost 4%, nationwide the increase was 2%. Most new businesses in
North and Central Limburg start in business services, also many people start a business in
the retail sector (both stores and online shops) or care. South Limburg is the only
Limburg region that saw a slight decline (1.1%) in the number of starting companies in
the first half of 2013. This may indicate a decline in confidence to start business.
However, also a decrease in the (working) population can lower the number of new
companies. Nevertheless, in total, South Limburg has more start-ups than North and
Central Limburg together. Overall, when compared to the Netherlands, in Limburg
especially entrepreneurs in industry and retail saw opportunities to start a business.
6 Results
Based on the above analysis, the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats are identified for the Limburg region (see Table 3).
Table 3 SWOT analysis of KBUD initiatives in the Limburg region
Strengths Weaknesses
• Strong (triple-helix) partnerships • Involving non-members
• Joint strategy • Communicating benefits
• Incubation • (Informal) meeting spaces
• Entrepreneurial culture
• Public funds for SMEs
• Finance and advice
• Adaptation of university programs
• Technical training
• Formal projects for collaboration
Opportunities Threats
• Quadruple helix partnerships • Social housing
• Encouragement of new activities • Attracting talent
• IP ownership
• Marketing centres
• Skill database
• Accessibility
• Local communication Infrastructure
• Public transport
• Alternative planning policies
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 339
Limburg has shown a remarkable economic recovery in the past 30 years. Due to the
strong supportive role of national and local government, triple helix cooperation is
traditionally well embedded in the region’s development culture. More recently, the
active participation of Rabobank in the investment programs of the LIOF, has further
strengthened innovation cooperation in the direction of a quadruple helix. The presence
of development companies like LIOF and LED in the region seem to have increased the
effectiveness of the Brainport 2020 initiatives that have been developed over the past
years, although the Province and the knowledge institutions Maastricht University and
Hogeschool Zuyd are in the lead. Although many initiatives are still in a start-up phase,
the region seems well equipped for successful KBUD from a local university-industry
knowledge community perspective (Blazek and Zizalova, 2010; Etzkowitz, 2012; Gertner
et al., 2011; Kasabov, 2008). However, not much is known yet about how to actively
build these communities in places to stimulate KBUD (Benneworth and Ratinho, 2014a),
particularly given the fact that these local knowledge communities are themselves
embedded in wider networks that can be conceptualised at a variety of scales, including
networks of practice, epistemic communities and knowledge collectivities, or even
imagined communities (Amin and Roberts, 2008). There is a strong realisation that the
attraction of international innovative firms and talent are highly important for bringing in
external competences and knowledge. Increasingly, developments to improve
enviro-urban and socio-economic quality are also receiving more attention.
In 2014, Limburg shows a slight economic growth (ING, 2013). However, the
sudden growth of the unemployment level indicates that particularly the province’s
socio-economic quality is still somewhat unstable. The current labour market conditions
are mainly responsible for a decrease of the interest in young people for the workforce.
However, also in the age groups 27–50 and 50+ years more people are looking for work
than a year ago. Attracting new talent and retaining experienced staff should therefore be
one of the main focal points of a KBUD for the Limburg region. Our case study shows
that this is indeed the case. Good examples are the projects in the field of development of
new knowledge and training that have already been realised by Maastricht University and
Hogeschool Zuyd, like Brains Unlimited and the Bachelor Science Degree. Besides
adaptation and innovation in the university programs, new vocational courses are set up
to improve the level of technical training in the region. Also, the current investment
programs of LIOF and LED in the campuses and related business development are
expected to create a considerable amount of new jobs in the region. The performance of
the chemical industry may serve as an example here.
Overall, a limited number of sectors is leading the recovery. The manufacturing
industry and the chemical industry clearly benefit from the solid demand from abroad
(ING, 2013). This also applies for logistics and related services. Growth is thus mainly
present in the north of the province; Central and South Limburg are doing relatively less
well. This is partly due to the more positive contribution of the population development
in the north compared to the south, but North Limburg also benefits from the higher
presence of companies in the engineering and electrical industry. South Limburg, on the
other hand, has the highest number of start-ups, although in the first half of 2013 the
number of start-ups slightly declined. To a certain extent, the relatively high
unemployment level may have positively affected the number of start-ups in Limburg.
This may also explain why Limburg traditionally has less innovative SMEs than
elsewhere in the Netherlands.
340 P. van Hemert and P.L. Iske
Figure 8 Overview of most important weaknesses and threats for the Limburg region in the
KBUD model (see online version for colours)
Performance
Turnover
Firms Weaknesses i.e.: -better
Jobs involvement in campus
initiatives and investment
programmes – encouragement
of supra regional partnerships
Combinatoric quality
a) formal projects for collaboration
b) involving non-members
c) communicating benefits
d) (informal) meeting spaces
collaboration, better communication of the benefits to local SMEs and accessible and
informal meeting spaces (see Figure 8).
Several initiatives have already been undertaken to improve involvement of local
SMEs in the current innovation projects, for example by means of the ‘acceleration
tables’ and the Limburg makers program. These programs are mainly set up to help
SMEs participate in innovation projects of LIOF and LED and finding partners to
cooperate with. Focus is on SMEs that are active in the field of manufacturing. As of yet,
there are no studies that have evaluated these programs longitudinally. In the future, such
a study could give better insight into the success and fail factors of these and other
initiatives and the specific (changing) needs of local SMEs in this respect. As 25% of the
SMEs in Limburg are active in the services industry and another 24% in the retail sector7,
the (socio-)economic quality of the region could also benefit from a more specific focus
on innovation initiatives specifically targeted towards the service and retail sectors. An
interesting initiative in this respect may be the Smart ServicesHub8, which is currently
setting up an ‘Expertise and Innovation Center for Smart Services and Business
Intelligence’ around the financial and administrative business activities that are strongly
represented in South Limburg including AZL, CBS, APG, de Tax and Customs
Administration (Belastingdienst) and various European shared service centres. The Smart
Services Hub will focus on supporting spin-offs and start-ups that focus on the
implementation of financial accounting processes, with the underlying idea that the
presence of high-quality financial and administrative processes may also further
strengthen the interrelationship between the different campuses in the region.
At the moment, the different campuses in Limburg are working on developing
individual meeting spaces, under the umbrella organisation Brightlands. Brightlands
offers accommodation, business and talent support, and a community focused on
innovation in a global context9. In 2016, an important meeting space will be realised at
the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, i.e., the Brightlands Chemelot Campus Center Court.
The Court is set up to become the heart of the Chemelot Campus. Center Court will
accommodate Chemelot Innovation and Learning Labs (CHILL), the Maastricht Science
Programme (University of Maastricht) and the DSM Innovation Center. Also, a service
boulevard will be housed there, as well as extensive conference facilities, a meeting
place, and location with extensive sports and exercise facilities. Another meeting space
will arise in 2017 at the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus, Mosae Vita, which will
be a meeting space for the population and health practitioners to experience and be
involved in the development of innovative products and services that help people lead a
conscious healthy lifestyle. Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo has an innovation
centre that serves as a network location for firms in the region. So far, there are no plans
to develop an informal meeting space with a specific bridge function between the
different sector-specific meeting spaces in order to better reach the non-innovative SMEs.
An informal network space for freelancers and SMEs active in the service sector, retail,
etc. could be of added value for the region, since, regionally, these are sectors where
many start-ups are active.
Investment in social housing is another important condition mentioned in the 2009
OECD report that has not been actively addressed by the Province and municipalities.
Already, the importance of housing for the region was highlighted by Public Result in
their assessment of the economic program of LED (2014). Also, the issue is addressed in
the regional agenda of the Province (Gebiedsagenda Limburg, 2011), but at the moment
there does not seem to be national financial support available. It is believed that the
342 P. van Hemert and P.L. Iske
7 Conclusions
and growth outcomes in urban areas (Forsyth, 2014). Although, we are aware that the
above results are based on qualitative case-study analysis only, we believe that the study
of the Limburg region has shown the potential of KBUD as an instrument for analysing
local knowledge development. In particular, quantitative analysis of survey data can help
to provide yet deeper insight into the mechanisms behind cooperation behaviour and its
effect on innovation performance of firms and regions, whereby innovation performance
in the KBUD model should ideally also include the analysis of sustainable performance
measures like environmental impact, minimisation of required inputs of energy, water
and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution – CO2, methane, and water pollution.
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Notes
1 The creation of trend databases and the forecasting of skill needs were approaches that were
successfully adopted.
2 Good examples of such projects, according to the OECD (Lawton Smith, 2009) are the
Oxford-Cambridge Arc, an organization that focuses particularly on the establishment of
networking in emerging and disruptive technologies, and the UK-Medicon Valley Challenge
Programme, promoting research exchange and interaction between organizations in the
Medicon Valley cluster and the biotech clusters in Cambridge, London, Liverpool-Manchester
and Edinburgh.
3 The OECD (Potter, 2009) refers in this respect to the Metis project in Grenoble, a number of
R&D projects aimed at disseminating micro-nano technologies to SMEs in traditional sectors
such as textiles and paper.
4 The Vienna cluster in particular showed this need to mix policy actions in order to stimulate
SMEs to co-operate. The insertion into national and international networks and collaborations
is considered to be of utmost importance (Tödtling and Trippl, 2009).
5 http://www.sustainablecities.eu/aalborg-process/charter.
Framing KBUD and absorptive capacity of urban regions 349
6 http://www.nfia.nl/province_of_limburg.html.
7 http://www.mkblimburg.nl/over-ons/mkb-limburg/over-ons2/.
8 http://www.smartserviceshub.nl/.
9 http://www.brightlands.com/.