Description
Book SynopsisThis book begins with a theoretical examination of regional innovation systems, agglomeration economics and knowledge spillovers, before going on to examine the same concepts within an empirical framework. Special emphasis is given to the importance of proximity in the formation of regional innovation systems. It concludes by considering innovation and human capital as determinants of regional economic growth.
The concept of knowledge spillovers is used within the book to explain a number of major economic phenomena, including the geographical clustering of inventions; the social returns to R&D that significantly exceed private returns; and the sizeable disproportions that exist between firms in terms of their R&D inputs and outputs. The contributors identify that small firms are responsible for far more product innovations than large firms relative to their measurable knowledge resources. The book also stresses the importance of a catch-up mechanism that sees technological improvement as the combination of two distinct types of activity: innovation and imitation. In this way, the impact of human capital and other types of knowledge acquisition on economic growth is measured. The conclusions of the contributors are invaluably oriented to policy implications.
This book will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students of regional science and innovation and knowledge, as well as policymakers.
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction Jordi Suriñach, Rosina Moreno and Esther Vayá PART I: REGIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS, AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES AND KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS: THEORETICAL APPROACHES 1. Theorizing Regional Knowledge Capabilities: Economic Geography Under ‘Open Innovation’ Philip Cooke 2. Knowledge Spillovers and Organizational Heterogeneity: An Historical Overview of German Technology Sectors Mark Lehrer 3. The Ambivalent Role of Mimetic Behavior in Proximity Dynamics: Evidence from the French ‘Silicon Sentier’ Jérôme Vicente, Yan Dalla Pria and Raphaël Suire 4. IT Adoption, Industrial Structure and Agglomeration Economies Flora Bellone PART II: REGIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS, AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES AND KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES 5. Pecuniary and Knowledge Externalities as Agglomeration Forces: Empirical Evidence from Individual French Data Corinne Autant-Bernard and Nadine Massard 6. The Adoption of ICTs – Why Does it Differ Across Regions? Andrea Bonaccorsi, Lucia Piscitello and Cristina Rossi 7. Novel Applications of Existing Econometric Instruments to Analyse Regional Innovation Systems: The Spanish Case Mikel Buesa, Mónica Martínez Pellitero, Thomas Baumart and Joost Heijs 8. Over-embeddedness and Under-exploration Issues in Cohesive Networks: An Application to Territorial Clusters Francesc Xavier Molina-Morales and María Teresa Martínez-Fernández 9. The Regional Dimension of University–Industry Interaction Joaquín M. Azagra Caro 10. Which Factors Underlie Public Selection of R&D Cooperative Projects? Lluís Santamaría Sánchez, Andrés Barge Gil and Aurelia Modrego Rico PART III: REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH AND KNOWLEDGE 11. Convergence Clubs and the Role of Education in Spanish Regional Growth Adriana Di Liberto 12. Non-linearities, Spatial Dependence and Regional Economic Growth in Europe: A Semiparametric Approach Roberto Basile 13. Urban Heterogeneity in Knowledge-related Economic Growth Frank G. van Oort and Otto Raspe Index
