Authors: Dimos Chatzinikolaou, Charis Vlados

Title: Local development approaches and the ILDI mechanism

Abstract

It seems that the past paradigm of regional analysis gives its place progressively to the approach of the dynamics of local development since the evolving localities constitute the development motor behind innovation and the overall national competitiveness. This study aims to analyze recent theoretical perspectives of clusters and business ecosystems and their relation to policies promoting local entrepreneurship and innovation. The “Local Development and Innovation Institutes” are a business ecosystem policy that aims to enhance the “Stra.Tech.Man physiology” and, thus, the potential of innovation for the entire socio-economic system. The Stra.Tech.Man approach suggests that every socio-economic organization articulates its competitive survival by the way it manages to synthesize the inner spheres of strategy, technology, and management.