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From the reediting of the book Regional Innovation Systems, the author introduces the theoretical and empirical construct called regional innovation system. The concept is analysed as a result of two dimensions of innovation activity, which are the governance infrastructure and the business superstructure. It is proposed that there are distinctive generic types of regional innovation systems. The paper distinguishes three types: Grassroots, Network and Dirigiste. The paper analyses how technology transfer, funding, kind of research and local and supra-local coordination, as well as business networking occur in those three types of systems. Integrating evolutionary economic and regional development theory the paper proposes that regional innovation systems are evolving as their elements shift with globalisation, the rise of knowledge-intensive industry and the hollowing-out of industrial age industries.