1st Edition

Regional Innovation, Knowledge and Global Change

By Zoltan Acs Copyright 2000
    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    First Published in 1999. The process of globalization is shaped and reinforced by a rapidly changing knowledge environment. As economies become less constrained national frontiers they become more geographically specialized. Thus, important elements of the innovation process tend to become regional rather than national. In this new environment, large corporations are weakening their links with their home country, spreading their innovation activities to source different regional systems of innovation. Regional networks of forms are creating new forms of learning and production. The aim of this book is to broaden, both conceptually and empirically, the 'national systems of innovation' approach, developed by Lundvall, Freeman, Nelson and others. While recognizing the creative nature of economic adjustment in a turbulent world and the highly uneven distribution of economic growth, the national systems approach lacks a mechanism by which to understand innovation when realistic unit of analysis is no longer the nation state. Written by leading scholars in the field, this book provides a ground-breaking examination of sub-regional systems of innovation in an interconnected global economy.

    1. Introduction Part I The Framework 2. National Innovation Systems 3. National Innovation Systems and Instituted Processes 4. Regional Innovation: In Search of an Enabling Strategy Part II European Studies 5. Business Processes in Regional Innovation Systems in the European Union 6. Innovation Systems and 'Local Difficulties': The Oxfordshire Experience 7. University-Industry Relationships in Germany and Their Regional Consequences Part III North American Studies 8. Regional Networks and Innovation in Silicon Valley and Route 123, 9. Universities in Local Innovation Systems 10. Towards a Conceptualization of Super-regional Systems of Innovation Part IV Regional Innovation Management 11. Sources of Innovative Environments: A Technological Evolution Perspective 12. Network Models for Technology-Based Growth 13. Venture Capital's Role in Regional Innovation Systems: Historical Perspective and Recent Evidence Part V The City and the World 14. The Learning Region 15. Cities, Information and 'Smart Holes'.

    Biography

    Zoltan J. Acs is McCurdy Professor of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Baltimore, USA