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

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

The measurement of meaning

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

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in local industrial agglomeration and specialization, not only by economic geographers but also by economists and by policy-makers. Of the many ideas and concepts to have emerged from this new-found focus, Michael Porter's work on ‘clusters’ has proved by far the most influential. His ‘cluster theory’ has become the standard concept in the field, and policy-makers the world over have seized upon Porter's cluster model as a tool for promoting national, regional, and local competitiveness, innovation and growth. But the mere popularity of a construct is by no means a guarantee of its profundity. Seductive though the cluster concept is, there is much about it that is problematic, and the rush to employ ‘cluster ideas’ has run ahead of many fundamental conceptual, theoretical and empirical questions. Our aim is to deconstruct the cluster concept in order to reveal and highlight these issues. Our concerns relate to the definition of the cluster concept, its theorization, its empirics, the claims made for its benefits and advantages, and its use in policy-making. Whilst we do not wish to debunk the cluster idea outright, we do argue for a much more cautious and circumspect use of the notion, especially within a policy context: the cluster concept should carry a public policy health warning.

/pdf/deconstructing-clusters-chaotic-concept-or-policy-panacea-3llok2hcsw.pdf

Deconstructing clusters: chaotic concept or policy panacea?

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion about the social economy and the term 'the third way' has attained a level of household recognition, especially in America and Britain. Academics and commentators have debated the usefulness of the social economy as a restraint on capitalist excesses with some arguing that the 'third way' is but a poor substitute for a welfare state. This book provides a refreshing and accessible account of real life experience in a social economy.
By focusing on new evidence, this book critically analyses such themes as:
*the range of academic and policy expectation that have emerged in recent years in the developed world
*the policies of New Labour in Britain
*the dynamics of social enterprises in Bristol, London, Middlesbrough and Glasgow. These critical assessments lead the authors to reflect in the future potential of the social economy and the possible policy changes that are necessary to maximise whatever opportunity the sector provides.

Placing the Social Economy

The recent growing interest in ‘learning’ and ‘knowledge’ as a - maybe the (only) - route to corporate and regional economic success is one facet of the engagement between economic geographers and ...

‘The Learning Economy, the Learning Firm and the Learning Region’ A Sympathetic Critique of the Limits to Learning

What might a resilient region look like in the face of an uncertainty about the global economy and environment? To begin to answer this question, the article first reviews existing concepts of resilience and critically reviews dominant neoliberal concepts of regional development. This forms the basis for seeking to specify the characteristics of resilient regions, arguing that these must have a lighter environmental footprint and involve a greater degree of regional closure in and regionalisation of economic activities. The final concluding section evaluates the limits to regional resilience in the face of global change.

Resilient regions in an uncertain world: wishful thinking or a practical reality?

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Progress in Human Geography 26 (1) 2002, Copyright SAGE Publications Ltd at: http://phg.sagepub.com/ [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]

Networks of value, commodities and regions: reworking divisions of labour in macro-regional economies

The author reflects upon regional economic change and the ways in which this is conceptualised and understood, drawing heavily but not exclusively on some thirty years of research on economy, politics and society in the North East of England. The principal question that this paper addresses is: how are the long periods of continuity, punctuated by occasional major shifts in developmental trajectory and the region's place in the global economy, to be understood? The author seeks to answer this question by exploring the extent to which continuity and change in the region's developmental trajectory can be understood in terms of evolutionary and institutional concepts and the varying engagement of the state with issues of socioeconomic development and change. The value of theoretical plurality in seeking to understand uneven development in capitalism is demonstrated and the limits to public policies that seek to address regional problems indicated.

/pdf/re-thinking-change-in-old-industrial-regions-reflecting-on-3920f1481v.pdf

Ray Hudson

Papers

Placing the Social Economy

‘The Learning Economy, the Learning Firm and the Learning Region’ A Sympathetic Critique of the Limits to Learning

Resilient regions in an uncertain world: wishful thinking or a practical reality?

Networks of value, commodities and regions: reworking divisions of labour in macro-regional economies

Re-thinking change in old industrial regions : reflecting on the experiences of North East England.