Clusters, Networks, and Innovation

by Stefano Breschi, Franco Malerba

Overview

Governments and regional authorities often express the belief that the key to prosperity and economic expansion is related to the ability of countries to sustain regional clusters of competitiveness and innovation. The book reviews the most important conceptual approaches to the analysis of the emergence, growth and evolution of clusters of innovation. Drawing from the different experiences of industrial districts and high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, Boston's biotech region and Hsinchu-Taipei, the contributions in this book offer a broad interpretative framework and policy implications for the creations and strengthening of competitive clusters.
Themes include:
q The wide variety of existing clusters and the diversity on their emergence and growth q The international mobility of factors and demand linkages q The role of different network types and the social setting q The accumulation of capabilities on key large actors and the importance of spinoffs and new firm formation q The role of different learning regimes and sectoral specificities q The importance of social networks, labor mobility and face to face contacts as vehicles of knowledge spillovers
Broad implications are drawn for the design of policies to encourage successful economic clusters in developed and developing clusters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199275557
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	01/31/2006
Pages:	524
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Stefano Breschi is an Associate Professor of Applied Economics at Università L.Bocconi and a member of the Board of Directors at Cespri-Bocconi, Milan, Italy. He has published in various international journals. His main research interests concern economics of innovation, industrial economics, industrial dynamics, regional economics, networks and clusters, industrial and technology policy. Franco Malerba is Full Professor of Industrial Economics at Università L.Bocconi. He is Director of CESPRI (Center for Research on Innovation and Internationalization) at Bocconi University. He has been president of the International Schumpeter Society and is currently president of EARIE (European Association for Research in Industrial Economics). He is Editor of the journal Industrial and Corporate Change, and Associate Editor of Research Policy and the Journal of Evolutionary Economics. He has published various books and several papers in various international journals. His main research interests concern economics of innovation, industrial economics, industrial dynamics, international competitiveness, and technology policy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Clusters, Networks, and Innovation: Research Results and New Directions, Stefano Breschi and Franco Malerba
Part I: New Perspectives on Clusters and Networks
1. Network Models of Innovation and Knowledge Diffusion, Robin Cowan
2. On Sectoral Specificities in the Geography of Corporate Location, Giulio Bottazzi, Giorgio Fagiolo, and Giovanni Dosi
3. Regional Knowledge Capabilities and Open Innovation: Regional Innovation Systems and Cluster in the Asymmetric Knowledge Economy, Philip Cooke
Part II: Emergence of Clusters and Entrepreneurship
4. 'Old Economy' Inputs for 'New Economy' Outcomes: Cluster Formation in the New Silicon Valleys, Timothy Breshanan, Alfonso Gambardella, and AnnaLee Saxenian
5. The Entrepreneurial Event Revisited: Firm Formation in a Regional Context, Maryann P. Feldman
6. The Firms that Feed Industrial Districts: A Return to the Italian Source, Mark H. Lazerson and Gianni Lorenzoni
7. Employee Startups in High-Tech Industries, Steven Klepper
Part III: Institutions, Local Communities, National and International Networks
8. The Silicon Vally-Hsinchu Connection: Technical Communities and Industrial Upgrading, AnnaLee Saxenian and Jinn-Yuh Hsu
9. The Institutional Embeddedness of High-Tech Regions: Relational Foundations of the Boston Biotechnology Community, Kellye Porter, Kjersten Bunker Whittington, and Walter W. Powell
10. Social Networks and the Persistence of Clusters: Evidence from the Computer Workstation Industry, Olav Sorenson
Part IV: Localization of Knowledge Spillovers
11. Buzz: Face-to-face Contact and the Urban Economy, Micahel Storper and Anhony J. Venables
12. The Geography of Knowledge Spillovers: Conceptual Issues and Measurement Problems, Stefano Breschi, Francesco Lissoni, and Fabio Montobbio
13. Comparative Localizattion of Academic and Industrial Spillovers, James D. Adams
Part V: Public Policies Towards Clusters
14. Towards a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Geographical Cluster, Peter Maskell
15. Deconstructing Clusters: Chaotic Concept or Policy Panacea, Ron Martin and Peter Sunley