This chapter presents a critical and updated review of alternative stylized conceptualizations of regional innovation processes developed in the past three decades. The survey reviews them according to two main perspectives. First, the different approaches are analysed in terms of the relevance and/or balance attached to the cognitive and functional components characterizing innovation processes (that is, respectively, the learning processes occurring in a region and local socio-economic conditions supporting such learning processes). Second, the different approaches are analysed in terms of their capacity to offer conceptual tools to analyse the evolution of regional innovation modes. Future research directions and applications are finally proposed.