Boschma R. A. (2005) Proximity and innovation: a critical assessment, Regional Studies39, 61-74. A key issue in economic geography is to determine the impact of geographical proximity on interactive learning and innovation. We argue that the importance of geographical proximity cannot be assessed in isolation, but should always be examined in relation to other dimensions of proximity that may provide alternative solutions to the problem of coordination. We claim that geographical proximity per se is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for learning to take place. Nevertheless, it facilitates interactive learning, most likely by strengthening the other dimensions of proximity. However, proximity may also have negative impacts on innovation due to the problem of lock-in. Accordingly, not only too little, but also too much proximity may be detrimental to interactive learning and innovation. This may be the case for all five dimensions of proximity discussed in the paper, i.e. cognitive, organizatio...

Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

This handbook looks to provide academics and students with a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the phenomenon of innovation. Innovation spans a number of fields within the social sciences and humanities: Management, Economics, Geography, Sociology, Politics, Psychology, and History. Consequently, the rapidly increasing body of literature on innovation is characterized by a multitude of perspectives based on, or cutting across, existing disciplines and specializations. Scholars of innovation can come from such diverse starting points that much of this literature can be missed, and so constructive dialogues missed. The editors of The Oxford Handbook of Innovation have carefully selected and designed twenty-one contributions from leading academic experts within their particular field, each focusing on a specific aspect of innovation. These have been organized into four main sections, the first of which looks at the creation of innovations, with particular focus on firms and networks. Section Two provides an account of the wider systematic setting influencing innovation and the role of institutions and organizations in this context. Section Three explores some of the diversity in the working of innovation over time and across different sectors of the economy, and Section Four focuses on the consequences of innovation with respect to economic growth, international competitiveness, and employment. An introductory overview, concluding remarks, and guide to further reading for each chapter, make this handbook a key introduction and vital reference work for researchers, academics, and advanced students of innovation. Contributors to this volume - Jan Fagerberg, University of Oslo William Lazonick, INSEAD Walter W. Powell, Stanford University Keith Pavitt, SPRU Alice Lam, Brunel University Keith Smith, INTECH Charles Edquist, Linkoping David Mowery, University of California, Berkeley Mary O'Sullivan, INSEAD Ove Granstrand, Chalmers Bjorn Asheim, University of Lund Rajneesh Narula, Copenhagen Business School Antonello Zanfei, Urbino Kristine Bruland, University of Oslo Franco Malerba, University of Bocconi Nick Von Tunzelmann, SPRU Ian Miles, University of Manchester Bronwyn Hall, University of California, Berkeley Bart Verspagen , ECIS Francisco Louca, ISEG Manuel M. Godinho, ISEG Richard R. Nelson, Mario Pianta, Urbino Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Aalborg

The Oxford Handbook of Innovation

One size fits all?: Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach

Sectoral systems of innovation and production

Recent work on nonmetropolitan industrialisation has tended to stress environmental attractiveness and the shortage of space for in situ expansion as the factors largely responsible for the process. The argument presented in this paper is that the process cannot adequately be understood in such terms. Some recipient locations are not especially environmentally attractive, and in other cases decentralisation has been to sizeable urban as well as rural locations. Three European regions, South Wales (United Kingdom), Emilia—Romagna (Italy), and Aveiro (Portugal), are chosen as representative of the different kinds of area to which industry has been decentralising. In each case, metals-based (often engineering) industry has been a prime decentraliser. The reasons for this include technical change enabling economies of scale to be achieved in small productive units, the search for lower production costs, social characteristics of the work force, and product-market factors.

Productive Decentralisation in Three European Regions

This original and timely book presents the most comprehensive, empirically based analysis of clustering dynamics in the high-technology sector across liberal and co-ordinated market economies.

Regional Knowledge Economies

Lean production and supply concepts are amongst the most influential management theories. Yet, they have scarcely been applied to aerospace, an industry sector of great importance. This paper identifies generic trends in aerospace outsourcing and explores to what extent the lean supply approach is fit to conceptualise them. It investigates to what degree the outsourcing strategies of Airbus UK and the wider Airbus operations are explicable with the lean approach. The paper finds that lean is capable of conceptualising most generic trends in aerospace outsourcing and most of the Airbus policies. Lean neglects the relevance of knowledge to outsourcing, however, and fails to recognise the diversity of the Airbus supply approach. Knowledge management in this process is now crucial. Technological capabilities are central to the Airbus strategies, illustrating the need to acknowledge knowledge as a key explanatory parameter of outsourcing theory. In conclusion, we find the higher the knowledge content, the more partnering occurs, the lower the content, the more hierarchical the relationship are.

Conceptualising aerospace outsourcing: Airbus UK and the lean supply approach

Este articulo analiza la aparicion, en los ultimos tiempos, de una nueva teoria regional caracterizada por unos elementos analiticos innovadores. En esta nueva aproximacion se reconoce la importancia de la configuracion de redes formales e informales entre organizaciones administrativas, politicas, educativas, de ciencia y empresariales en una atmosfera de confianza que permite minimizar
costes de transaccion de la economia en su conjunto. El "perfil cultural" de la region y la importancia asignada al marco institucional integrado por rutinas, habitos, normas y convenciones se consideran elementos centrales no solo para la comprension de la dinamica de desarrollo regional sino tambien para la elaboracion de politicas que contribuyan a la mejora de la innovacion y la competitividad regional.
Los autores concluyen que, para alcanzar un resultado que mejore la innovacion generada por la dinamica relacional entre los diversos agentes que integran el sistema regional, es preciso que las politicas y las infraestructuras que provienen de ese generador de energia mecanica procedente del lado administrativo, puedan incentivar e incluso compensar los deficits que existan en ese otro conjunto generador de procesos culturales e institucionales permanentemente cambiantes.

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/273850.pdf

Philip Cooke

Papers

Productive Decentralisation in Three European Regions

Regional Knowledge Economies

Conceptualising aerospace outsourcing: Airbus UK and the lean supply approach

Dimensiones de un sistema de innovación regional: organizaciones e instituciones

The intelligent region : industrial and institutional innovation in Emilia-Romagna