This book discusses the importance of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in supporting regional competitiveness. It also encourages academics, business professionals and policy-makers to rethink innovation ecosystems as drivers of regional competitiveness, demonstrating the complex interactions between regional economic and social actors, and their impact on regional competitiveness. Further, the book examines the role of entrepreneurship and innovation policies in different regions (e.g. lagging regions, rural regions, etc.), and describes critical success factors in multi-level technologies and innovation policies and strategies.

Luís Farinha is an Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, and Assistant Professor and researcher at the University of Beira Interior (Portugal). He is the founder and Dean of the Regional Helix - International Conference, and is Vice President of InovCluster, a nationally and internationally recognized center of excellence in the agro-industrial sector. He is the co-editor of two books: Handbook of Research on Global Competitive Advantage through Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Multiple Helix Ecosystems for Sustainable Competitiveness (Springer, 2016), and has published several journal articles and book chapters.

Domingos Santos is an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB) in Portugal. He has been involved in several national and European research projects, and was the executive coordinator of the Center for Regional Development Studies at the IPCB, where he was responsible for defining and implementing the institution's innovation and entrepreneurship policy. He has been involved in the evaluation of public policies and programs in Portugal and was the executive coordinator of the Center for Regional Development Studies at IPCB. 

João J. Ferreira is an Associate Professor at University of Beira Interior, Portugal. He completed the European Doctoral Programme on Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. He is currently the scientific coordinator of NECE - a research unit on business sciences. He has published several articles in international journals and has edited a number of international books.