Strategic agency and institutional change: investigating the role of universities in regional innovation systems (RISs)

Past analyses rooted in thick description of regions successful in constructing regional innovation systems have given way to analyses more focused on the intentionality in these processes, and how actors in regions with their own wider networks can shape these high-level changes in regional fortunes. As part of this, place-based leadership has emerged as a promising concept to restore both agency and territory to these discussions but it remains under-theorised in key areas. In this paper, we contribute to these debates by arguing that there remains a reduction of agency to organisations, and that place-based leadership research needs to take into account organisational dynamics and interests in for bettering our understanding of the dynamics of place-based leadership in regional innovation systems.