Handbook of Research on Innovation and Clusters: Cases and Policies

by Charlie Karlsson

Overview

The role of innovations and clusters has increasingly dominated local and regional development policies in recent decades. This authoritative and accessible Handbook considers important aspects of high-tech clusters, analyses insightful cluster case studies, and provides a number of recommendations for cluster policies.

The chapters in this Handbook are written by international experts in the field and present evidence of the scope, effects, and potential of clusters as concentrations of innovative activities. The authors emphasize that cluster development is not the only option for local and regional development and argue that for cluster policies to be worthwhile, supporting policies in fields such as education, R&D, transportation, and communication infrastructure must accompany most cluster policies. Furthermore, several contributions stress that clusters often develop along a life cycle that may end with decline and even the disappearance of clusters. Consequently, this Handbook provides the basis for improving both research on innovation and clusters and the formulation and implementation of cluster policies.

Furnishing the reader with rich, comprehensive discussion of innovations and clusters, this Handbook will be an essential source for researchers and academics in the field, as well as policymakers, planners and specialists, development experts and agencies, and consultants.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849800877
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	09/30/2010
Series:	Handbooks of Research on Clusters series , #2
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Edited by Charlie Karlsson, Professor Emeritus of the Economics of Technological Change, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University and Professor Emeritus of Industrial Economics, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden

Table of Contents

Contents:

Preface

1. Introduction
Charlie Karlsson

PART I: INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND CLUSTERING OF HIGH-TECH FIRMS
2. The Contribution of Clustering to Innovation: From Porter I Agglomeration to Porter II Export Base Theories
James Simmie

3. Entrepreneurial Dynamics and the Origin and Growth of High-Tech Clusters
Colin Mason

4. High-Tech Firms and the Dynamics of Innovative Industrial Clusters
Mario A. Maggioni and Massimiliano R. Riggi

5. Employment Growth in ICT Clusters: New Evidence from Great Britain
Bernard Fingleton, Danilo Igliori and Barry Moore

6. Inter-Firm Networks in High-Tech Clusters
Helen Lawton Smith

7. Venture Capital Emergence and Startup-Intensive High-Tech Cluster Development: Evidence from Israel
Gil Avnimelech, Dafna Schwartz and Morris Teubal

8. Knowledge Clusters and University–Industry Cooperation
Jérôme Doutriaux

9. Innovation-specific Agglomeration Economies and the Spatial Clustering of Innovative Firms
Stefano Breschi

PART II: CASE STUDIES
10. The Clustering of Software Consultancy in Oslo: Reason for and Effects of Clustering
Arne Isaksen

11. Labour Market Dynamics and the Development of the ICT Cluster in the Stockholm Region
Mats Lundmark and Dominic Power

12. The Clustering of Biotechnology Firms in Scotland
Joseph Leibovitz

13. The Saskatoon Agricultural Biotechnology Cluster
Peter W.B. Phillips, Camille D. Ryan, Jeremy Karwandy, Julie L. Graham and Tara L. Williams

14. Networks and Geographic Clustering as Sources of MNE Advantages: Foreign and Indigenous Professional Service
Firms in Central London
Lilach Nachum, Robert Laud and David Keeble

15. Leipzig’s Media Cluster
Harald Bathelt and Caroline von Bernuth

16. Understanding Social and Spatial Divisions in the New Economy: New Media Clusters and the Digital Divide
Diane Perrons

17. Innovation, Collaboration and Learning in Regional Clusters: A Study of SMEs in the Aberdeen Oil Complex
Andrew Cumbers, Danny MacKinnon and Keith Chapman

18. The Entrepreneurial Event Revisited: Firm Formation in a Regional Context
Maryann P. Feldman

19. Spatial and Functional Clustering: A Comparative Analysis of the Baltimore and Washington DC Metropolitan Regions in the US
Guang Yang, Roger R. Stough and Kingsley E. Haynes

PART III: CLUSTER POLICIES
20. Institutions and Clusters
Ulrich Blum

21. The Role of Civic Capital and Civic Associations in Cluster Policy
David A. Wolfe and Jen Nelles

22. Cluster Policies and Cluster Strategies
Frank Peck and Christine E. Lloyd

23. From Biotechnology Clusters to Bioscience Megacentres: Related Variety and Economic Geography
Philip Cooke

24. Silicon Somewhere: Is There a Need for Cluster Policy?
Gert-Jan Hospers, Frédéric Sautet and Pierre Desrochers

Index

Editorial Reviews

'This volume is an important step in furthering the discussion about how cluster strategies work and the implications for theory and policy.'

Jennifer Clark