COMPANY RESOURCES AND REGIONAL CONTEXT
As international competition intensifies, the importance of the innovative power of companies increases. The strength and resources of each individual company are crucial, but the surrounding regional context plays an increasingly important role.
Proximity to competitors as well as access to strong innovation environments contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of new and existing companies. Good regional conditions for development also attract competence, capital and investments. This produces specialized regions where business and knowledge environments together create fertile soil for new business concepts that can stand up to global competition.
In the IT/telecom (ICT) sector, the county of Skåne in Southern Sweden has a strong concentration of internationally competitive companies and world-class innovation environments. World giants Sony Ericsson and Ericsson have together in the area around 5000 employees. Small, innovative firms such as TAT, Scalado, and Tactel are headquartered here. Specialized academic research and educational institutions such as Lund Institute of Technology and Malmö University constitute a strong infrastructure of knowledge. Nearby Copenhagen, Denmark, hosts a Nokia development center, and in the neighboring county of Blekinge another mobile communications cluster, Telecom City, is located.
In order to reinforce the region's competitiveness, the industry, academia and the public sector have decided to make a long-term, concentrated investment in the growth sector of mobile communications by way of a so-called triple helix-based initiative Mobile Heights.
Within the framework of Mobile Heights, the parties invest their own and shared resources in order to more effectively eliminate structural problems that inhibit innovation, growth and competitiveness. The collaboration concerns using existing resources in a smarter way and attracting companies, people and capital to the region.
Last updated 2008-10-11
