This paper focuses on the policy process in establishing the liaison function in university-industry-government(U-I-G) relationships. We argue that the synchronic phenomena of a trans-sectoral liaison is one of the most important strategies for region's innovation systems today.
From the 1980s, a new trend of the regional technology transfer process has expanded broadly within advanced economies. Successful practices, such as the 80's Cambridge phenomenon (Segal,1985) and the Silicon Valley model (Saxenian ,1996) , demonstrate the importance of local networks among key actors for endogenous growth of high-tech clusters. According to the latest survey of the 19 successful European high-tech regions, dissemination of information through informal local networks is more valuable for local high-tech SMEs than formal cross-sectoral cooperation of the U-I-G relations (Keeble and Wilkinson (eds.) , 2000). However, almost all of the regions, with the exception of the limited number of successful ones, have been handicapped by traditional and institutional barriers between key sectors (regardless of whether the system was government or market driven). Even in the early 90's, in Silicon Valley, those involved needed to devise new policies to reform the region's social and economic ties in response to the serious recession caused by the hollowing out of the industry (JV:SVN, 1995). Significant lessons suggest that similar policy processes exist in regions which aim at endogenous growth with the establishment of a region's innovation system.
In this research, we primarily target three significant cases in Japan: Iwate, Ishikawa and Yamaguchi prefectures, in which the "local" national universities have shown rapid growth in the number of research projects in cooperation with the industry or government related sectors. Each region has almost the same size of industrial economy, around 1% of the national economy both in employment and in gross regional product . In contrast to that, the structural and institutional differences are clear. Yamaguchi was developed early as an area for heavy and chemical industries complexes. Ishikawa has more endogenous clusters of locally-oriented manufacturers as well as large clusters of traditional textile industry. Iwate, which has been one of the most undeveloped and primary industries-oriented regions in Japan, has caught up in recent years by attracting electrical and electronic manufacturing companies.
Three research questions for the comparative study are addressed ; 1) How are the liaison networks between the U-I-G structured? 2) What type of actors mainly cooperate in research with the academic, local, external or central actors? 3) Are there significant informal networks? How do the individual actors contact each other? etc. The qualitative research, which is constructed through a combination of observations and formal/informal interviews with key persons in the field, was undertaken in addition to the reading of various text-based primary sources such as brochures, reports and Internet web pages. After the primary research, we entered to the next stage: focusing on significant indications, deepening the embedded mechanisms, rules or customs, and composing the obvious phenomena using the heuristic method. As the final step, the implications of Japanese cases were compared with other cases in the US and Europe. We did similar field research in the Aachen and Ruhr region in Germany; Bologna and Modena in Italy; and Sophia-Antipolis in France in September, 2001. The research was focused on regional technology transfer and U-I-G relations. Data from the research as well as from the primary sources were applied to European cases while only text-based primary and secondary sources were applied to the US cases.
The implications seem clear. General conditions for the emergence of an efficient liaison strategy were defined; 1) As process conditions: (a) co-recognition of a regional crisis, (b) flexible leadership from the common or grassroots level (including social entrepreneurship among established players), (c) serious rigidity of the region's institutions (if the region's institutions are suffiiciently flexible, they don't need any specific strategy. Somehow, embedded liaison function should constantly work well.) ; 2) As organizational conditions: (d) multilayered organizational strategy, (e) personnel strategy for multiplex belonging.
Such a strategical vision of a multilayered organization provides essential efficiency for the liaison strategy. Both top officer level liaison and middle manager level liaison are important. If one side is missing, such a monolayered liaison never works efficiently. Moreover, bottom grassroots level liaison is also important. In the endogenous growth-oriented regions, bottom-up communication processes (I named it "Idea-to-consensus metamorphosing process") can be seen among various local grassroots leaderships and also local authorities statesmanships. I compare such a process of "JV: Silicon Valley Network model" in the early '90s with "Iwate Model" from 1987 to 2002.
This research also implies relevance to other significant phenomena in different fields, such as the self-governance process of the open-source software development communities like "Linux" or the multilayered organizational strategy for strategic alliances of advanced enterprises like Hewlett Packard. Expanding and deepening of the theoretical framework is a desirable subject for further research in future.
References
JV:SVN(Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network)[1995] The Joint Venture Way: Lessons for Regional Rejuvenation, Volume 1, JV:SVN.
Keeble, D. and Wilkinson, F. (eds.) [2000] High-technology Clusters, Networking and Collective Learning in Europe. Hampshire,England:Ashgate Publishing.
Saxenian,A. [1996] Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128, Harvard University Press.
Segal,N.[1985] Cambridge Phenomenon: The Growth of the High-technology industry in a university town, Segal Quince&Wicksteed.
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