The edge of a regional innovation system may be drawn conceptually and organizationally around the economic, social, political and institutional relationships that generate a collective learning process within a related group of technological or functional areas.
[1] In regions lacking large firms, universities can take on the important role of knowledge brokers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
[4] The Swiss New Regional Policy (NPR)[5] influences the development of RIS since it supports the RIS governance and management, whose activities encompass services intended for start-up and SMEs: point of entry, networking platforms, cluster development and coaching.
It fosters best practices exchanges on this and regularly publishes reports on related issues (for example included in the Territorial Reviews).
[8] The RIS concept, which originated in European academic literature, has been used as an influential analytical tool in different Latin American countries.