opening the black box of agglomeration economies for measuring cities competitiveness through international firm networks the ability of cities to operate in global networks is usually measured according to their central position within multinational firm linkages these measures are often used at the interurban level and neglect the intraurban processes of multiplier effects the present study demonstrates that this affects the measurement of city centrality in business networks intraurban capabilities of interaction are considered in the measurement of interurban indices the study is based on hypothetical networks at a micro level between long range links and it mobilises processes as agglomeration economies social capital developments and transaction costs these processes at the intraurban level strengthen the efficiency of interurban linkages it is suggested that the indices used to measure city centrality should include these local effects applied to a small sample of six firm networks the methodology shows advantages for emerging large metropolises but insufficient local effects for specialised clusters the mu

territorial innovation models a critical survey moulaert f and sekia f 2003 territorial innovation models a critical survey reg studies 37 289 302 this paper provides a critical review of the literature on territorial innovation models industrial districts milieux innovateurs new industrial spaces local production systems etc the review is organized in two stages first the main features of each of these models and their view of innovation are compared second their theoretical building blocks are reconstructed and evaluated from the point of view of conceptual clarity and analytical coherence it is found that despite some semantic unity among the concepts used economies of agglomeration endogenous development systems of innovation evolution and learning network organization and governance territorial innovation models tims suffer from conceptual ambiguity the latter is mainly a consequence of the way territorial innovation is theorized i e in terms of technologically driven innovation and a business culture that is ma

alfred marshall lecture social capital as good culture to explain the extremely long term persistence more than 500 years of positive historical experiences of cooperation putnam 1993 we model the intergenerational transmission of priors about the trustworthiness of others we show that this transmission tends to be biased toward excessively conservative priors as a result societies can be trapped in a low trust equilibrium in this context a temporary shock to the return to trusting can have a permanent effect on the level of trust we validate the model by testing its predictions on the world values survey data and the german socio economic panel we also present some anecdotal evidence that these priors are reflected in novels that originate in different parts of the country jel 04 016 043 p16

regional innovation systems theory empirics and policy asheim b t lawton smith h and oughton c regional innovation systems theory empirics and policy regional studies interest in regional innovation systems has grown significantly over the past three decades driven partly by advances in theoretical analysis partly by the growing interest in innovation as a source of competitive advantage and partly by the need for new policies to address regional inequalities and divergence this article explores the elements and characteristics that exemplify the regional innovation systems approach it provides an appraisal and synthesis of the regional innovation systems paradigm and aims to shed light on a number of areas where theoretical empirical and policy based questions remain unanswered it outlines and assesses the major strands in recent theoretical and empirical debates and discusses how they might be developed to contribute to the further advancement of the regional innovation systems literature three interrelated questions form the key themes arou

the concept of total economic value of environment a reconsideration within a hierarchical rationality abstract beyond a purely typological distinction between use option and non use values these different environmental values are not treated differently within the concept of total economic value when expressed in monetary terms from individual preferences these values are incorporated into a sole approach reasoning in terms of utility in this paper we argue that option and non use values stem from more different levels of choice problems than use values and thus must be apprehended in a multidimensional framework we distinguish three levels of choice problem to which various rationality criteria of social cost benefit analysis are attached this allows us to make a distinction between the different components of the value of the environment according to the level of problems to which they re relevant thus we propose to re interpret the concept of total economic value particularly option and non use values within this multidimensional framework we present an application of this framework for the selection of preferred highway route highway a85 in france

moving innovation systems research to the next level towards an integrative agenda the concept of innovation systems has been a guiding paradigm of innovation research and strongly influenced research and innovation policy since the early 1990s in spite of this success criticisms have been raised in recent years about whether it is still a suitable framework for addressing the innovation related challenges of the future in the present paper we claim that systemic explanations of innovation success have still a very important role to play in order to address the rising criticism however we have to reconsider the conceptual core of the family of innovation systems is approaches and sketch out a path for renewal the paper retraces the conceptual roots of is approaches assesses their uptake in different policy circles around the world discusses the conceptual core and explanatory ambition and finally formulates a future oriented research agenda for a more integrative innovation systems framework

regional innovation evolution and economic performance abstractconceptual reflections and empirical evidence on the evolution of regional innovation processes are increasing in recent years this paper contributes to this debate by focusing on the long

trust interlinking transactions and credit in the industrial district an essential feature of the industrial district is trust among individuals and firms within it this paper focuses mainly on trust based on investments in building up a good reputation that is a personal capital that can even substitute for collateral in obtaining credit informal credit often linked to other transactions and especially subcontracting is therefore an important way of financing economic development in the industrial district moreover the importance of trust as personal capital gives rise to a double financial intermediation in the industrial district this double intermediation constitutes a device to reduce information problems that are usually responsible for credit rationing c 1994 academic press inc copyright 1994 by oxford university press

power in firm networks what it means for regional innovation systems christopherson s clark j 2007 power in firm networks what it means for regional innovation systems regional studies 41 1223 1236 the role of power within regional firm networks is noted in empirical studies but insufficiently theorized it is suggested that network functioning is conflictual and that more powerful network members particularly transnational corporations tncs leverage regional resources to advance their sustainable competitive advantage the agendas and power exercised by tncs within regionalized firm networks have significant implications for regional policy and the uneven allocation of resources and capacities within and among regions the findings indicate that transnational firm access to resources that are critical to innovation including university research and skilled labour negatively affects the potential for innovation by small and medium size firms christopherson s et clark j 2007 le pouvoir au sein des reseaux d entreprise son importance pour les systemes d

jockeying for position what it means and why it matters to regional development policy when places compete malecki e j 2004 jockeying for position what it means and why it matters to regional development policy when places compete regional studies38 1093 1112 the realization that places compete for investment has expanded in recent years to encompass competition among places for the attention of migrants tourists and media glow as well as investment the most competitive places have been multidimensional in their attractions and have made the transition to the knowledge based economy the latest priority is being placed on attracting mobile workers and mobile investment creative workers are the core of the knowledge economy and of its geographies such as intelligent places and learning regions knowledge metrics innovation indices and report cards are increasingly common each seemingly developed to sort the list of places in a different order lists or league tables of the best places for business to live retire and visit are key features of economies and societies whose factors of success

industrial districts social cohesion and economic decline in italy the paper argues that the so called canonical view of the italian industrial district id depicts it as a system whose economic and social vitality requires the interaction between two major sub systems a community of people and a community of firms a range of circumstances including insufficient aggregate demand competition from low cost coun tries and technological change have determined inconsistencies between the rationales of these two sub systems as a result lead firms have emerged that substitute the id as coordinating instances in the pursuit of their goals they tend to prefer cost scrapping to quality enhancement thereby determining a competition that further undermines the id as a system the paper contends that this outcome is not the only possible one an alternative would require the regulatory as opposed to merely permissive action of pub lic actors in that it would have to change the incentive system that leads firms to choose short sighted strategies

towards a knowledge based theory of the geographical cluster co located firms within related industries enhance the ability to create knowledge by variation and a deepened division of labour the interdependent development between economic activities and local institutions make the cluster attractive to some industries and hostile to others the very reasons why cognitive distance might be small within the cluster tend to make cognitive distance great between clusters and make interfirm co operation across bodies of knowledge more costly the additional value created when clustering may justify the additional cost copyright 2001 by oxford university press

how to institutionalize innovative clusters comparing explicit top down and implicit bottom up approaches abstract the cluster concept has become a popular guideline for regional policies fostering industrial competitiveness and innovativeness based on sectoral specialization and collaboration this article discusses the issue of effective institutional forms of cluster promotion juxtaposing two modes explicit cluster policies implemented top down by regional authorities and implicit initiatives that are organized and financed bottom up by groups of firms both approaches are compared from a theoretical and empirical perspective pointing out differing patterns of effects relative strengths and weaknesses realization of these differences considered in relation to regional preconditions and objectives may help to adequately institutionalize cluster support

agglomeration economies interregional commuting and innovation in the peripheries regional development and innovation are often studied in the context of agglomeration economies leading to a perception bias regarding the virtues of cities recent work on interregional connectiv

the slave trade and the origins of mistrust in africa in a recent study nunn 2008 examines the long term impacts of africa s slave trade he finds that the slave trade which occurred over a period of more than 400 years had a significant negative effect on long term economic development although the article arguably identifies a negative causal relationship between the slave trade and income today the analysis is unable to establish the exact causal mechanisms underlying this reduced form relationship in this article we examine one of the channels through which the slave trade may affect economic development today combining contemporary individual level survey data with historical data on slave shipments by ethnic group we ask whether the slave trade caused a culture of mistrust to develop within africa initially slaves were captured primarily through state organized raids and warfare but as the trade progressed the environment of ubiquitous insecurity caused individuals to turn on others including friends and family members and to kidnap trick and sell each other into slavery sigismund wilhelm koelle 1854 p e h hair 1965 charles piot 1996 we hypothesize that in this environment a culture of mistrust may have evolved which may persist to this day we show that current differences in trust levels within africa can be traced back to the transatlantic and indian ocean slave trades combining contemporary individual level survey data with historical data on slave shipments by ethnic group we find that individuals whose ancestors were heavily raided during the slave trade are less trusting today evidence from a variety of identification strategies suggests that the relationship is causal examining causal mechanisms we show that most of the impact of the slave trade is through factors that are internal to the individual such as cultural norms beliefs and values jel j15 n57 z13

the emergence of technology systems knowledge production and distribution in the case of the emilian plastics district the emergence of technology systems is the result of interdependen t dynamics of generation and diffusion of complementary bits of localised technological knowledge technological communication is the crucial element assessing the collective conditions under which technological knowledge is accumulated and diffused the case study of the emerging emilian technological system in the plastics sector shows that the synchronic and diachronic localised interactions among industrial dynamics institutional r d efforts and technological interrelatedness are the determinants of the systematic production accumulation and distribution of localised technological knowledge in turn explaining the origin and development of the technology system itself

clusters entrepreneurial ecosystem co creation and appropriability a conceptual framework extant literature on clusters underplays the role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial management in creating and co creating organizations markets and supporting ecosystems we employ transaction costs resource knowledge capabilities and power control based theories to provide a comparative static governance based perspective on clusters we embed this into a more general co evolutionary entrepreneurial theory of the emergence evolution and co evolution of markets ecosystems and clusters we suggest that clusters can involve advantages that help engender superior appropriation of co created value as compared to alternatives entrepreneurial managers faced with a degree of choice will help co create clusters and be part of them for as long as they can appropriate more value in this way than through alternatives

effects of ancestral populations on entrepreneurial founding and failure private liquor stores in alberta 1994 2003 until 1993 all liquor stores in the canadian province of alberta were government owned and run in the fall of 1993 the provincial government exited liquor retailing all government stores were shut down and entrepreneurs were allowed to open private liquor stores in this article we take advantage of this abrupt regulatory change in the alberta liquor retailing industry to address two related issues that have received little empirical attention first we investigate how an ancestral population affects processes of legitimation and competition while density dependence theory predicts that legitimation effects outweigh competitive effects at low levels of density will this be the case when a new population replaces a similar ancestral one second beyond density dependence we investigate how ancestral populations affect the locations of new entrepreneurial ventures will entrepreneurs follow ancestral location patterns and will these ancestral locations confer survival advantages to answer these questions we map all private liquor stores on the street map of calgary alberta s largest city from 1994 to 2003 and analyze store founding and failure we use our results to draw implications for theories of density dependence entrepreneurial behavior and industry spatial structure copyright 2011 the author 2011 published by oxford university press on behalf of associazione icc all rights reserved oxford university press

analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems a scheme of analysis various researchers and policy analysts have made empirical studies of innovation systems in order to understand their current structure and trace their dynamics however policy makers often experience difficulties in extracting practical guidelines from studies of this kind in this paper we operationalize our previous work on a functional approach to analyzing innovation system dynamics into a practical scheme of analysis for policy makers the scheme is based on previous literature and our own experience in developing and applying functional thinking it can be used by policy makers not only to identify the key policy issues but also to set policy goals

beyond economic base theory the role of the residential economy in attracting income to swiss regions segessemann a and crevoisier o beyond economic base theory the role of the residential economy in attracting income to swiss regions regional studies regional development theories are mainly focused on export based activities to explain regional competitiveness the increasing mobility of workers and residents leads to a reconsideration of this approach residential economy has become a strategic issue to generate incomes within regions with this view the paper analyses the link between economic activities and incomes from workers and annuitants residents a spatial typology breakdown is compiled for swiss regions using a hierarchical cluster analysis hca empirical results highlight various regional development profiles conversely to export based theories regions with higher income are those with strong residential economy thus opening new avenues for local governance

an economic approach to social capital a standard optimal investment model can be used to analyse an individual s decision to accumulate social capital we analyse six facts that support the predictions of this individual based approach 1 social capital first rises and then falls with age 2 social capital declines with expected mobility 3 social capital rises in occupations with greater returns to social skills 4 social capital is higher among homeowners 5 social connections fall sharply with physical distance 6 people who invest in human capital also invest in social capital we fail to find robust evidence that social capital investments fall with the value of time or that geographic religious groups generate social capital complementarities

does social capital reduce crime abstract we investigate the effects of civic norms and associational networks on crime rates civic norms may attach guilt and shame to criminal behavior thus increasing its opportunity cost associational networks may increase returns to noncriminal activities and raise detection probabilities but they may also work as communication channels for criminals and may offer official cover to criminal activities the empirical assessment of these effects poses serious problems of endogeneity omitted variables measurement error and spatial correlation italy s great variance in social and economic characteristics its homogeneity in policies and institutions and the availability of historical data on social capital in its regions allow us to minimize the first two problems to tackle the last two problems we use report rate adjusted crime rates and estimate a spatial lag model we find that both civic norms and associational networks have a negative and significant effect on property crimes across italia

between luminaires and meat grinders international trade fairs as temporary clusters bathelt h and schuldt n between luminaires and meat grinders international trade fairs as temporary clusters regional studies this paper claims that international trade fairs viewed as temporary clusters are important events that support economic processes of interactive learning and knowledge creation in such settings geographical proximity and face to face contact enable actors from different countries to exchange information about markets products and innovations the variety of planned and unplanned meetings and the rich ecology of information flows and different forms of interaction create global buzz firms use such events to consciously establish pipelines with new business partners worldwide the paper will present empirical evidence from two flagship fairs held in frankfurt main germany to support these claims bathelt h et schuldt n soit magasin de luminaires soit hachoirs de viande les foires commerciales internationales comme grappes temporaires regional studies cet artic

the role of social capital in financial development to identify the effect of social capital on financial development we exploit social capital differences within italy in high social capital areas households are more likely to use checks invest less in cash and more in stock have higher access to institutional credit and make less use of informal credit the effect of social capital is stronger where legal enforcement is weaker and among less educated people these results are not driven by omitted environmental variables since we show that the behavior of movers is still affected by the level of social capital of the province where they were born

the drivers of climate change innovations evidence from the australian wine industry this study examined the drivers of climate change innovations and the effects of these innovations on firm outcomes in a sample of 203 firms in the south australian wine cluster the results of structural equation modeling analysis suggest that absorptive capacity has a direct effect on climate change innovations and stimulates knowledge exchanges kes between firms in the cluster kes between firms in the cluster in turn directly affect the climate change innovations the findings suggest a perhaps counterintuitive interrelationship between firm and cluster level impacts in which kes between firms in the cluster play a partial mediating role in the innovation process the study further finds that climate change innovations are related to firm performance fp and reductions in greenhouse gases ghgs mitigative innovations lead to greater ghg reductions while adaptive innovations impact on fp contributions of the findings are discussed as are future research directions

information technology consultancy firms economies of agglomeration from a wide area perspective agglomeration economies remains a powerful concept in spatial analysis however in order to keep its full relevance for contemporary urban and regional systems it must be completed in two ways

trust in large organizations several authors suggest that trust is an important determinant of cooperation between strangers in a society and therefore of performance of social institutions we argue that trust should be particularly important for the performance of large organizations in a cross section of countries evidence on government performance participation in civic and professional societies importance of large firms and the performance of social institutions more generally supports this hypothesis moreover trust is lower in countries with dominant hierarchical religions which may have deterred networks of cooperation trust hold up remarkably well on a cross section of countries this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

agreeing to pay under value disagreement reconceptualizing preference transformation in terms of pluralism with evidence from small group deliberations on climate change abstract plural values contribute to multiple arrays of expressed preferences conventionally preference convergence toward consensus among initially disagreeing decision makers is understood in terms of diminishing value differences a cogent account of consensual decision that respects non diminishing value plurality is lacking instead there is a theoretic expectation for categorical consistency between subjective values and expressed preferences valuing agents in social interaction are expected to indicate identical preference orderings only if they hold correspondingly identical categories of values this expectation precludes meaningful conceptualization of preference convergence under divisive normative dispositions an alternative framework is proposed and illustrated by results from a designed deliberative forum on australia s climate change policy data were analyzed based on q methodology results show that small group deliberations enabled effective communication between distinctive subjective positions and broadened understandings between individuals while a consensual decision gained progress no identified value discourse diminished below a significant degree observed changes in values did not run parallel to the converging preferences suggesting a decline in value preference consistency these changes nonetheless are amenable to the principle of value pluralism an alternative rationality concept is needed to account for this moral ideal within economics

knowledge innovation and institutions global and local dimensions of the ict cluster in waterloo canada bramwell a nelles j and wolfe d a knowledge innovation and institutions global and local dimensions of the ict cluster in waterloo canada regional studies this paper presents research findings on the information and communication technology ict cluster in waterloo ontario cluster dynamics in canada do not conform to some of the key assumptions in the literature on clusters that emphasize the importance of local intra cluster dynamics based on inter firm linkages at the local level the results of this case study indicate that many inter firm linkages in the waterloo ict cluster are non local and that extra firm institutional supports such as the local university and industry association are critical in sustaining and strengthening the cluster knowledge based cluster theories that emphasize the role of local and global knowledge flows and learning processes and the interaction effect of civic capital and local institutions in supporting the development of a local learning economy prov

the water utility adoption model wuam understanding influences of organisational and procedural innovation in a uk water utility for uk water and sewerage companies wascs the capacity to innovate capital investment processes and consequently performance outcomes is fundamental as they seek to deliberately change infrastructure to improve the sustainability of service delivery within a comparatively regulated framework innovation is viewed here as being either incremental or radical changes to the products services and processes ways of delivering services which are typical to the organisation wascs product and process innovations may involve changes to some or all of technologies organisational structure and processes behaviour and culture and knowledge and skills within the organisation and its supply chain this paper sets out to provide an understanding of the factors which both enable and constrain the development and adoption of infrastructure investment process innovations in the context of water utilities concerned with water and sewerage service delivery the paper documents the process and results from an inductive research programme of participatory action research undertaken within a large privately owned uk wasc to facilitate infrastructure investment process innovation employee narratives during the innovation process from initiation to adoption decision making were characterised and analysed the findings suggest that the development and adoption of asset investment process innovations tends to be skewed in favour of opportunities which align with i uk and european union legislative and regulatory drivers ii wasc mission policy and goals iii innovation cost advantages over a prescribed period of time iv perceived risks to service provision associated with the introduction of the innovation and v the extent to which the organisational processes and cultures which act to increase the absorptive capacity of the wasc to the proposed innovation are already functioning

time should tell more evolutionary economic geography and the challenge of history abstractevolutionary economic geography theory stresses the importance of time and history to explain the evolution of regional economies yet consistent empirical treatment of longitudinal patter

the coming regional crisis and how to avoid it the analysis of regional development and the formation of development policies is currently excessively influenced by the assumption that globalization represents the overriding causal influence and policy imperative this bias seems to derive from insufficiently critical borrowings from the management literature and the emergence of a stratum of economic development actors concerned primarily with regional competitiveness the article suggests that the objectivity of analysis and the economic rationality of policy making can be improved by paying more attention to localized activities to regional economic welfare and to the impact of regionalization on macroeconomic policy making

the division of labor need not imply regional specialization the regional specialization of economic activities is generally deemed desirable for three reasons 1 the law of comparative advantage 2 localized economies of scale and 3 knowledge spillovers taking a methodological individualist perspective we claim that 1 the law of comparative advantage while valid for individuals and firms does not necessarily imply regional specialization when regions are viewed as consisting of heterogeneous individuals 2 localized economies of scale are seldom specific to one industry and external in all but the regional level and 3 the study of knowledge spillovers is inconclusive and would benefit from a more disaggregated perspective

mnes as border crossing multi location enterprises the role of discontinuities in geographic space spurred by the classic work of dunning mne location has become the focus of a growing body of research in the field in this paper we argue that international business ib research examining the spatial dimension has serious weaknesses stemming from its traditional assumption of the country as the location unit of analysis while border crossing remains the key research context of ib placing it within a general spatial framework that recognizes both international and subnational spatial heterogeneity opens up vast new vistas for research analyzing mnes as border crossing multi location enterprises allows the researcher to distinguish between discrete border effects and continuous distance effects and undertake a more fine grained analysis of location within such analysis national borders may appear as qualitative discontinuities in space that is points at which spatial heterogeneity changes abruptly however subnational spatial heterogeneity is often the characteristic that drives firm strategy as mnes decide to locate in particular agglomerations and not at random locations within a country the complex firms that ib scholars study typically include multiple units within the same country so that a complete analysis requires considering both subnational distance effects as well as international border effects

working through knowledge pools labour market dynamics the transference of knowledge and ideas and industrial clusters this article explores a prominent cluster in the swedish capital stockholm and its surrounding region the ict information and communications technology cluster in particular the article focuses on the issue of the extent to which labour market and labour mobility are the most likely channels for local and extra local sources of knowledge and ideas thus the article positions itself against a growing literature that focuses on rather diffuse and vague notions that knowledge and innovation reside in the air or in the buzz of urban life instead the underlying hypothesis is that in many sectors and industries such things as a cosmopolitan street life or accidental face to face encounters play relatively little part in the flow of experiences knowledge and innovation rather it is in the workplace that these exchanges and flows are located and it is thus through labour mobility that intracluster exchanges occur the article tests such ideas in relation to the ict cluster and the stockholm region using a uniquely detailed time series data set the data set used is based on official taxation and civil registration records and contains complete details on everything from education to career changes to income levels for every individual resident in sweden the detail of the individual records and the complete nature of the data set mean that it offers a unique possibility to examine on a large scale the micro dynamics of individuals in the labour market and in clusters the data are used to examine whether there have existed over time higher levels of labour market mobility in clusters as opposed to the rest of the urban economy the article empirically verifies the idea that labour market mobility is significantly higher in the cluster than in the rest of the urban economy

innovation in space the mosaic of regional innovation patterns this article casts light on the increasingly complex geography of innovation and knowledge sourcing activities we argue that the spatial patterns of learning and knowledge exchange vary substantially across different types of regions and industries the article elucidates such variations by combining three analytical approaches namely i modes of innovation differentiating between science technology innovation sti and doing using interacting dui modes ii regional innovation systems distinguishing between organizationally thick and diversified thick and specialized and thin systems and iii types of knowledge linkages that connect actors during the innovation process we explore in detail the key characteristics of the spatial architectures of innovation and knowledge flows in sti and dui industries located in regional innovation systems with varying degrees of organizational thickness and specialization we also discuss empirical examples documented in the extant literature to illustrate our arguments on how innovation and knowledge circulation unfold in space in various territorial and industrial contexts

proximity dynamics social networks and innovation there is a growing literature dealing with the role of geographical proximity in the innovation process storper and venables 2004 moodysson and jonsson 2007 knoben and oerlemans 2006 fitjar

co evolution of firms industries and networks in space ter wal a l j and boschma r co evolution of firms industries and networks in space regional studies the cluster literature suffers from a number of shortcomings 1 it often neglects that cluster firms are heterogeneous in terms of capabilities 2 it tends to overemphasize the importance of geographical proximity and underestimates the role of networks and 3 it hardly addresses the origins and evolution of clusters the authors propose a theoretical framework that brings together the literature on clusters industrial dynamics the evolutionary theory of the firm and network theory it is described how clusters co evolve with 1 the industry with to they adhere 2 the capabilities of the firms they contain and 3 the industry wide knowledge network of which they are part ter wal a l j et boschma r la coevolution geographique des entreprises des industries et des reseaux regional studies la documentation sur les clusters souffre d un nombre de points faibles 1 elle ne tient c

do clusters make a difference defining and assessing their economic performance spencer g m vinodrai t gertler m s and wolfe d a do clusters make a difference defining and assessing their economic performance regional studies this paper contributes to the literature on cluster dynamics by developing a new methodology for identifying clusters that is not dependent on united states based definitions this methodology is used to test if the geographical clustering of economic activities leads to superior industrial performance and regional competitiveness the analysis produces two important findings first when industries locate in an urban region with a critical mass of related industries they tend to generate both higher incomes and rates of employment growth second the overall prevalence of clustering within a city region is positively associated with income levels and employment growth spencer g m vinodrai t gertler m s et wolfe d a les grappes qu est ce qu elles changent definir et evaluer leur performance economique regional studies cet article cherc

innovation dynamics of global competitive regional clusters the case of the norwegian centres of expertise isaksen a innovation dynamics of global competitive regional clusters the case of the norwegian centres of expertise regional studies this paper analyses the innovation dynamics in six regional clusters that have been appointed as norwegian centres of expertise and have been assessed as some of the most internationally competitive regional clusters in norway the most consistent finding concerns the great importance of strong norwegian innovation systems in the maritime and oil and gas industries in underpinning the innovation dynamism of these clusters this finding has some theoretical implications because the national level is mainly absent in the discourse on local buzz knowledge spillovers inside the cluster boundaries and global pipelines international relations and knowledge flows what remains as an important local factor is the historically developed unique competence of firms which is strengthened by the fact that locally sited state owned higher education and research institutions ha

varieties of regulation how to combine sectoral regional and national levels schroder m and voelzkow h varieties of regulation how to combine sectoral regional and national levels regional studies research on economic governance is contradictory varieties of capitalism scholars argue for national differences between liberal and coordinated market economies others argue that economic sectors come with distinct modes of governance a third research strand explains the economic governance of companies through the regional system of innovation and production in which they are embedded problematically this current state leaves the question open about how national sectoral and regional economic governance interact using case studies from three research projects this paper shows how the national sectoral and regional level of economic governance can be combined by advancing the argument that incoherent institutions can be complementary

knowledge and the climate change issue an exploratory study of cluster and extra cluster effects climate change while potentially impacting many industries appears to have considerable significance to the wine industry yet little is known about how firms acquire knowledge and gain an understanding of climate change and its impacts this study exploratory in nature and studying firms from the wine producing region of tasmania is one of the first in the management literature to use cluster theory to examine the climate change issue firms are predicted to exchange knowledge about climate change more readily with other firms internal to the sub cluster than with those external to the sub cluster the hypothesis does not find support the study also proposes that the different characteristics of knowledge can either increase or decrease their flows in and around clusters specifically public knowledge about climate change is predicted to flow more freely than private knowledge about climate change the hypothesis does not find support finally firms are expected to acquire knowledge about climate change from sources other than cluster entrenched firms and in particular peak national industry bodies the hypothesis finds partial support a discussion of the findings is presented along with future research directions

long lasting differences in civic capital evidence from a unique immigration event in italy a range of evidence exists demonstrating that social capital is associated with a number of important economic outcomes such as economic growth trade and crime a recent literature goes further to illustrate how historical events and variation can lead to the development of differing and consequential social norms this paper examines the related questions of how persistent initial variations in social capital are and the extent to which immigrant groups do or do not converge to the cultural and social norms of their recipient country by examining a unique and geographically concentrated immigration event in 16th century italy we demonstrate that despite the substantial time since migration these communities still display different behavior consistent with higher civic capital than other comparable italian communities moreover we demonstrate that this difference does not appear to have changed over the last 70 years for instance differences in voter turnout apparent in the late 1940s remain in the 21st century this latter finding has implications for our view of the likelihood of assimilation of immigrant groups to local norms particularly in cases of large scale migration

firm level knowledge accumulation and regional dynamics two bodies of literature have contributed significantly to our insight into the forces driving competitiveness and economic growth regional agglomeration studies emphasise the favourable impact of geographical proximity on regional economic performance particularly through knowledge spillovers however the firms that constitute those agglomerations largely remain black boxes in contrast studies dealing with technological learning explain economic performance at firm level without systematically taking account of the effects of geographical proximity the aim of the paper is to propose a possible way to bridge this gap this contributes to our understanding of the determinants of economic growth in industrial clusters an empirical illustration of a capital goods cluster is elaborated

constructing regional advantage platform policies based on related variety and differentiated knowledge bases asheim b t boschma r and cooke p constructing regional advantage platform policies based on related variety and differentiated knowledge bases regional studies this paper presents a regional innovation policy model based on the idea of constructing regional advantage this policy model brings together concepts like related variety knowledge bases and policy platforms related variety attaches importance to knowledge spillovers across complementary sectors the paper categorizes knowledge into analytical science based synthetic engineering based and symbolic arts based in nature with different requirements of virtual and real proximity mixes the implications of this are traced for evolving platform policies that facilitate economic development within and between regions in action lines appropriate to incorporate the basic principles behind related variety and differentiated knowledge bases asheim b t boschma r and cooke p

innovation and industrial districts a first approach to the measurement and determinants of the i district effect boix r and galletto v innovation and industrial districts a first approach to the measurement and determinants of the i district effect regional studies the paper analyses an exhaustive database of patents granted in spain between 2001 and 2006 aggregated in a panel of 806 local labour markets classified by seven typologies of local production systems the analysis shows that marshallian industrial districts generate 30 of spanish patents and an innovative output per capita that is 47 above the national average and 31 larger than the manufacturing production systems of large firms the econometric estimates of a fixed effects model confirm the existence of an innovation district i district effect and its size the i district effect is mainly related to the presence of marshallian localization economies boix r et galletto v innovation et districts industriels une premiere approche de la mesure et des determinants des effets des districts d innovation regional studies nous analysons une base