Arrona Etxaniz, AinhoaZabala Iturriagagoitia, Jon Mikel2026-04-142026-04-142019-01-02Arrona, A., & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, J. M. (2019). On the study and practice of regional innovation policy: the potential of interpretive policy analysis. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 32(1), 148-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2018.15281411351-161010.1080/13511610.2018.1528141https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14454/5631Over the past decade, the literature on innovation studies has begun to recognize the growing complexity associated with innovation policies. However, these complexities, inherent to the policy world, have often not been sufficiently recognized or considered in prescriptive studies of regional innovation policies, which may hinder the contribution being made from the research to the practice of innovation policy. The present conceptual article reflects on the relevance of analytical approaches toward capturing, and interacting with, such complexities. We discuss necessary reflections that should take place in the process of analyzing regional innovation policies so as to grasp and address their complexities in a more comprehensive and holistic manner. We specifically propose the incorporation of interpretive policy analysis, a perspective that has a long history in policy sciences even though it is not extensively developed in the literature on regional innovation studies until now.eng© 2018 The European Association for the Advancement of the Social SciencesCoordinationGovernanceInterpretive policy analysisPolicy analysisRegional innovation policyRegional innovation studiesjournal article2026-04-141469-8412