Regional development and regional networks: The role of regional development officers in Finland

People responsible for regional development often understand fairly well the need to construct regional advantage and build clusters. They also know the importance of industry—university interaction and they have been taught to respect innovation systems and to build them. But what they have not been given much advice on is how to do it — how to create networks for these purposes, how to direct and maintain them, how to lead complex policy networks. Network management, or leadership in networks, in the context of regional economic development is a black box not only for practitioners but for academics too. The research questions discussed here are: a) what do regional development officers actually do in the early 21st century to gain influence in policy networks, and hence in their efforts to promote regional development, and b), related to the first question, what are the key processes in their efforts to mobilize policy networks and guide them. The empirical research is based on data gathered through 41 interviews with Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of regional development at different levels of regional development activity.