Impact appraisal of regional innovation policy measures on automotive industry competitiveness: a search after better practices

The present paper reports on a search after better practices in policy support to enhance the competitiveness of automotive activities on a regional level. Based on a Europe-wide inventory of such initiatives, an initial long list was drawn up. This long list was reduced on the basis of a number of 'filter criteria', such as preliminary success signals, the presumed causal relationship of the measure vis-a-vis industrial competitiveness and the specificity of the measure. The resulting short list was subjected to a more severe evaluation. This consisted notably of gathering verifiable proof of performance and of positive effects sorted by the measures. In the end, a number of remarkable success cases were identified. However, on the whole, it appeared that only with regard to very few initiatives was it possible to establish a proven track record and/or contrast its positive causal effect on the health and dynamics of regional automotive activities. An important conclusion and implication of the research results is that there is a strong need for more systematic evaluation of the performance of regional initiatives that aim to support the automotive industry.