THE EVOLUTION AND CONFIGURATION OF REGIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGIES (RIS) – CASE STUDIES OF THE VISEGRAD COUNTRIES (V4)

In the Central-Eastern Europe countries a policy of regional development was not present until a territorial reform (that is dividing country into regions: Poland 1999, Slovakia 2002, Czech Republic 2000) related to the accession of these countries into the European Union took place. For this reason, a regional development policy looked for outside inspirations of theoretical and practical foundations of a regional development models. In last decades we observe significant changes in approaches to the regional development towards interdisciplinary. In the same time the theory based on accumulation and the use of knowledge, frequently called the endogenous growth theory has been popular. The key assumption of the endogenous growth theory is that the accumulation of knowledge generates technological progress and economic growth. It is therefore acknowledged that investments in human capital and research and development are crucial for regional endogenous development. The main goal of this paper is to present the structure of Regional Innovation Strategies in emerging countries (V4) and to demonstrate its evolution towards intangible foundations of development. In the first part of the article (theoretical), there will be presented the most influential contemporary theories of a regional development, especially those focusing on a role of knowledge and its transformation as well as the specificity of Visegrad countries. In the second part of the article (empirical), we analyse the structure of RIS’s based on contextual analysis.