Thesis

Early indicators for measuring the success of projects for innovation-led regional structural change

Funding programmes for innovation-led regional structural change aim to support the scientific, economic and social innovation potential in the region and to make it usable for sustainable structural change. The targeted strengthening of innovation ecosystems in structurally weak regions can also improve economic competitiveness and employment prospects in the long term. The challenge of such programmes, however, is that the intended effects become visible in the relevant regional economic indicators (such as unemployment rates, start-up rates, influx, GDP, etc.) in the medium term at best. It is therefore necessary to investigate what suitable leading indicators for a future impact of politically induced innovation ecosystems could be.

The aim of the thesis is to compile and evaluate existing indicators to measure the success of projects on innovation-driven regional structural change. In particular, its suitability as early indicators, its impact orientation, its advantages and disadvantages as well as the availability of data and the costs of data collection and analysis are to be analysed.