Small Wins through Inducement Prizes: Introducing Challenge-Oriented Regional Prizes (CORP)

There is an emerging consensus that innovation policies must be geared towards solving societal challenges. The policy complexity of the third generation of innovation policy (TGIP), however, puts less-developed European regions at risk of being left behind from this novel policy paradigm due to lower institutional and governance capacities. Building on the concept of a small wins strategy that focuses on small-scale and bottom-up initiatives that are guided by a shared mission to address wicked problems, the article's methodology uses expert interviews, examples of challenge prizes, and desk research to explore whether inducement prizes can potentially engage less-developed regions (LDRs) in TGIP to address place-based societal challenges through a small wins strategy. The article introduces the concept of a challenge-oriented regional prize (CORP) as a stepping-stone policy tool to engage LDRs in TGIP through a small wins strategy, namely regarding issues of directionality, legitimacy, responsibility, and strategic orientation. CORPs are, however, not a silver bullet policy tool for LDRs to engage in TGIPs due to their design and implementation constraints.