This dissertation consists of introductory part and four essays each
covering certain aspects to regional development. Three of the essays
are research reports from joint and multi-disciplinary research efforts.
The main driver for research activities has been to deepen the
understanding of regional development in the modern context dominated by
phenomena such as urbanization.When the natural and even decades ago
forecasted mobility of economic activities seems to be towards central,
metropolitan areas and whenmetropolitan cities produce themajority of
national GDP, the concern about differences in regional development
becomes justified. As well as urbanization has prompted research
projects, the second important issue has been to analyze the need for
regional policy. Therefore, it has been studied whether there are –
besides pure political reasons – any grounds for active regional policy
programs.



The three research reports included in this dissertation are built
in case study fashion on the Arctic region – the Scandinavian Arctic, to
be precise. The Arctic has been presented as an area, which is
struggling with typical challenges of periphery but also as an area of
special economic interest due to natural resources as well as
experiments in innovation activities. Moreover, since digitalization is
unanimously identified, alongside with urbanization, as another mega
trend it is reasonable to inspect peripheral communities and their
functions from the perspective of rapidly developing technologies, which
presumably fade out the importance of geographical locations. The
fourth essay in this dissertation deepens the economic approach to the
concepts of innovations and technological change.



The general outline of the research consists of three elements.
First, the concept of an innovation ecosystem is considered as a
platform for regional development. Secondly, the case area is studied to
understand the potential need for and requirements to corresponding
regional development policy. The second element contains also a study on
the economic potential of the case area. Finally, the concept of
regional policy is expanded over national boundaries and opportunities
for multi-national collaboration are studied.



The research results show that reorganizing local development
activities indeed requires a new kind of role for public sector. Oulu
Innovation Alliance was investigated as a regional concept and concluded
to contain various elements of an innovation ecosystem. Moreover, it is
argued that the challenges of Arctic context are efficiently met when
public sector adopts a role of an enabler and networker. Studying Arctic
innovation systems and their effect on the regional economies can offer
new insights to the challenges of other peripheral regions as well.