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The geography of knowledge revisited: geographies of KIBS use by a new rural industry
Abstract
It is difficult to define, let alone locate, knowledge. Research in regional studies suggests that cities are the focus of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), attract knowledge workers, and concentrate research and development (R&D) and universities: the implication is that knowledge is created in and diffused from urban centres. We suggest this may be a consequence of only studying knowledge that is relevant to, and used by, city-based industries: a growing number of researchers show that some types of knowledge are generated in non-urban or small-town clusters. This study focuses on the geography of KIBS (a proxy for knowledge inputs) used by Canadian winemakers (an emerging sector located in rural areas). After questioning what is meant by ‘knowledge’, we show that services incorporating knowledge of different types are sourced from different types of location. We conclude that there is no single geography of knowledge: for winemakers, different types of knowledge are sourced from cities, wine regions and also dispersed non-urban areas.
... Spatially, they are particularly localised in large cities or metropolitan regions that provide a high density of human capital and other agglomeration advantages (Elche, Consoli, and Sánchez-Barrioluengo 2021). It is only in the more recent literature that intraregional perspectives are occasionally considered in this context, looking at the spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive services in an urban-regional context (De Ávila Serrano 2019; Feng, Growe, and Shen 2020;Solis et al. 2022), in more rural areas (Shearmur and Doloreux 2021), or in terms of their concentration in smaller and medium-sized towns (Wagner and Growe 2019). Other studies have involved analyses of the effects of the spatial situating of KIBS, and thus also the importance of distances to core cities in terms of related diversification (Brunow, Hammer, and McCann 2019;Vaillant et al. 2021). ...
... However, it has been noted that KIBS are not exclusively localised in core citiesand there in central business districtsbut also exist in areas surrounding the city regions (De Ávila Serrano 2019; Shearmur and Doloreux 2021;Bürgin et al. 2022). As Fujita and Ogawa (1982, 195) noted, agglomerations that were previously often characterised by a large centre are undergoing a 'catastrophic structural transition' towards new (smaller) centres in the surrounding areas. ...
... The development of rural areas in urban regions is often viewed from the perspective of governance research, with governance and planning discussed in co-operation between urban cores and the rural hinterland (Harrison and Heley 2015; Meijers and van der Wouw 2019)for example, under the catchword of 'communities of responsibility' (Harrison and Growe 2014). However, analyses of functional linkages have shown that rural areas in urban regions are involved in knowledgeeconomy processes through work processes (Shearmur and Doloreux 2021) and location choices (Wagner and Growe 2019;Growe and Volgmann 2022). However, the periphery of urban regions is not equally attractive for all KIBS actors. ...
Knowledge-intensive services are regarded as drivers of innovation and globalisation processes, and are mainly concentrated in large cities and metropolitan areas in the urban system. However, regionalisation processes of knowledge activities are increasing in the city-regional environment, which leads to a relief of the core cities and to an upgrading of the surrounding regions. The aim of this work was to present these regionalisation processes in the areas surrounding Germany's 50 large city regions in terms of knowledge bases (analytical, synthetic, symbolic) for the period 2012-2019. The focus was on a differentiation of the large city regions into core areas and wider surrounding areas. Employment data from the Federal Employment Agency were used for the analysis. Firstly, we examined the change in importance of the core and wider surrounding areas in comparison to all large city regions in the German urban system in order to identify particular focal points of knowledge-economy development. Secondly, we looked at changes in the core and wider surrounding areas within the individual city regions in terms of different forms of knowledge. Finally, we argue for possible further theoretical developments regarding the importance of city-regional contexts in the field of knowledge-intensive services.
... Especially in the area of knowledge-intensive services, this development is taking place with a high degree of dynamism, which at the same time also places changed demands on space and allows new spatial categories and city types to become significant. Especially, the importance and spatial distribution of highly qualified human capital and knowledge-intensive service occupations remains under-researched in medium-sized and smaller towns so far: researchers continue to focus strongly on metropolitan areas and large cities as the drivers of the knowledge economy and, thus, the hubs of innovation, globalization, and internationalization [13], only occasionally considering peripheral regions [7,14,15] and only in recent literature small-and medium-sized towns as centers of concentration of knowledge-intensive activity [16,17]. However, there have been few systematic studies concerning the functional equipment [18,19] and the economic specialization of these sites, especially studies focused on knowledge-intensive service professions [3]. ...
Medium-sized towns represent important anchor points with regard to services of general interest that are also places to live and work. The increasing number of employees in the service and knowledge economy and the shift in working conditions towards more flexible and mobile working models have impacted the importance of working locations outside the metropolises. This study classifies all medium-sized German towns with a focus on the knowledge economy to analyze the role of this city type for different labor market indicators. First, 19 indicators are condensed into six principal components by means of principal component analysis. This is followed by a cluster and a discriminant analysis to determine five types of towns: (1) important working and education centers , (2) residential towns with a work function, (3) average medium-sized towns, (4) accessibility winners, and (5) tax winners. The results demonstrate that medium-sized towns should be regarded as a single and important urban category, especially concerning the knowledge economy. Our classification enables an initial evaluation that can be used for further evidence-based funding policy and spatial governance. By concluding with a methodological critique and discussing the results obtained, we argue for a more nuanced look at medium-sized towns from different disciplinary perspectives.
... This is a peculiar and less studied phenomenon, which has recently been observed in other Nordic and non-Nordic countries (e.g. rural Sweden (Carson, Carson, and Lundström 2021) and peripheral Canada (Shearmur and Doloreux 2021)), and that we expect to discover in the Norwegian context under analysis (by benefitting from the level of disaggregation we are using, equivalent to NUTS 4). We will discuss this in more detail in the following sections. ...
Increasing attention is being paid towards the influence of regional contexts on innovation activities within regional development studies. Some of the literature in economic geography tends to consider the various peripheral areas as being homogenous and partly characterized by their remote location, weak innovation inputs and lack of knowledge exchange. This paper questions this approach by examining the role of innovation activities in peripheral regions. We offer a detailed and multifaceted taxonomy of the Norwegian economic regions. From an empirical viewpoint, the adoption of cluster analysis and a broad set of innovation, economic and territorial indicators allowed us to provide a nuanced picture of the current fabric of Norwegian innovation and economic-production. With the benefit of insights from relevant strands of literature (e.g. regional development, innovation systems and multi-scalar innovation networks), the case of Norway presented in our paper contributes to the scholarly debate on the role of structural preconditions for the innovation of firms in diverse peripheral areas.
... A common (and often too simple) interpretation is that large urban regions have a locational advantage over peripheral areas: for instance Florida et al. (2017: 93) state that "innovation and entrepreneurship do not simply take place in but require cities". This type of statement has given rise to suggestions that the geography of innovation is 'biased' toward identifying innovation in cities (Shearmur, 2017) since there is increasing evidence that innovation also occurs in peripheral regions (Shearmur and Doloreux, 2021;Eder, 2019). ...
Since Jensen et al.’s (2007) seminal paper conceptualizing innovation modes, many empirical studies have demonstrated the validity of the concept. There have recently been two developments that may help clarify our understanding of innovation modes. First, innovation modes are being sub-divided between those internal and those external to the firm. Second, it is increasingly suggested that the connection between innovation mode and innovation outcome may be context dependent, with specific interest in regional context. In this paper we contribute to this debate by examining whether the connection between internal and external innovation modes and innovation outcomes varies across two types of context: geographic (with establishments classified according to their distance from a metropolitan area) and technological (in order to position our geographic results). We show that for some types of innovation and for some types of mode, geographic context is a determining factor, whereas technological context has no effect on the relationship.
... Therefore, the geography of knowledge has attracted the attention of many scholars over the years as there is a debate on the definition of knowledge (Alvesson, 1993) and about how (and whether) knowledge can be located (Jaffe et al., 1993;Malecki, 2010;Schiller & Diez, 2012;Shearmur & Doloreux, 2021). Following Marshall (1920) and Jacobs (1969), research has analysed knowledge spillovers and highlighted their localized nature (Almeida & Kogut, 1999;e.g. ...
Cities have increasingly asserted their central role in the national economy and in developing and promoting knowledge and innovation at local and national levels. Scholars, economists, and policymakers have examined the effects of innovation in this field as well as the resulting impact on the competitiveness and attractiveness of cities, regions, and urban areas. In the knowledge age, the importance of new generations and the trend towards high-skilled human capital are key factors in urban and national development.
In this study, we aim to examine the role played by high-tech firms in the city context and its influence on the attraction of knowledge flow and analyse the moderating role of youth entrepreneurship in those relationships. Using the Spatial Panel data model, we evaluated the student flow interconnections in 30 Italian cities for a 10-year period (2009–2019). As a result, we found that the city attractiveness in terms of student mobility is influenced by the capacity of cities to generate and promote innovation in terms of high-tech firms at the local and spatial levels.
These findings suggest that local high-tech firms in cities can influence the knowledge inflow and students' mobility while youth entrepreneurship in cities positively affects this relationship. The obtained results could serve as a good basis to enhance the city development policies in terms of innovation and knowledge, as well as the implementation of smart city projects.
... Previous studies looking at student mobility have been conducted at the regional level (Faggian and Mccann, 2009;Qian et al., 2019) and there are only a few studies focusing on the impact of mobility in terms of city development and city attraction. Drawing on the research by Goldstein and Drucker (2006) Therefore, the geography of knowledge has attracted the attention of many scholars over the years that there is a debate on the definition of knowledge (Ancori, 2000;du Plessis, 2007) and about how (and whether) knowledge can be located (Jaffe, Trajtenberg and Henderson, 1993;Almeida and Kogut, 1999;Malecki, 2010;Shearmur and Doloreux, 2021). Following Marshall (1920) and Jacobs (1969), research has analysed knowledge spillovers and highlighted their localized nature (e.g. ...
The work explores the role played by cities into the urban development considering
i) the interception between the smart city context and the international marketing
strategies ii) the impact of the promotion of a high-tech business environment on
the attraction of knowledge and students in relation to the moderating effect of
youth entrepreneurship in the city; iii) the relationship between Smart Mobility
Practices and tourism flows in cities; iv) the (dis) advantages of inclusive,
integrative and social urban practices on the creation of new business and the effect
of intra- and inter-national human capital inflow. The core of the research aims to
find connections between smart cities, city attractiveness, business environment,
international marketing strategies, and human capital. The thesis consists of four
peer-reviewed publications. The first chapter describes an overview of the thesis.
The second chapter proposes a systematic literature review to discover the current
literature trend and the fundamental base for further research. A quantitative
analysis contributes to the research area with additional insights in the third, fourth
and fifth chapters. The quantitative analysis uses the General Nesting Spatial (GNS)
method, Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) methods, and Generalized Least
Squared (GLS) methods to analyze a sample of 20 Italian cities. The purpose of this
thesis is to contribute to the smart cities area by reviewing the current literature
from an international perspective and analyzing the role of the city in the urban
environment both in terms of business development and city attractiveness, using
empirical evidence. Moreover, this thesis aims to take part in the debate on the
implementation of smart cities by proposing new insights and opportunities for
discussion, criticism, and support for further research.
Collaborative innovation spaces (CIS) can bring together multiple actors to enhance creativity, collaboration and knowledge exchange, sometimes leading to innovation. In this paper, we suggest that CIS can be categorized into three broad types (internal to the firm, external and virtual) and that each type is related to innovation processes, knowledge‐sourcing and geographic context in specific ways. Our results, based on an original firm‐level survey, reveal that there is heterogeneity with respect to firm attributes and innovation activities associated with different types of CIS. In particular, whilst innovation is associated with the use of CIS in general, radical and technological innovations are more strongly associated with internal CIS, whereas smaller firms tend to use virtual CIS. External CIS, whilst not associated with technological innovation, are associated with high‐tech firms. CIS use does not vary across geographic context. These results emphasize the importance of in‐person, internal, CIS for radical and technological innovation and the need to distinguish between different types of CIS in order to understand how each is associated with different types of innovation, knowledge‐sourcing and firm.
Cet article porte sur le développement d'une nouvelle industrie, à savoir l'industrie brassicole dans la région périphérique de l'Est‐du‐Québec. Son objectif consiste à comprendre et décrire les principales activités des microbrasseries pour déceler leur apport au développement des régions de l'Est‐du‐Québec, à savoir le Bas‐Saint‐Laurent et Gaspésie–Îles‐de‐la‐Madeleine. Les résultats de notre analyse permettent d'apporter des enseignements nouveaux sur la contribution de cette industrie au développement de ces deux régions. This article focuses on the development of a new industry, namely the brewing industry, in the peripheral region of Southeastern Quebec. Its objective is to understand and describe the main activities of the microbreweries and to detect their contribution to the development of Southeastern Quebec, namely the Lower‐Saint‐Lawrence and the Gaspé peninsula‐Magdelen islands regions. The results of our analysis allow us to shed new light on the contribution of this industry to the development of these two regions. Cet article étudie le développement de l'industrie microbrassicole dans la région périphérique de l'Est‐du‐Québec. Les microbrasseries de cette région ont émergé selon des processus identitaires et sociaux forts et un attachement à l'environnement local. Les microbrasseurs répondent à des motivations qui sont à la fois économiques mais aussi la quête d'un style de vie, l'attachement à la région, et le désir de faire développer leur communauté. Cet article étudie le développement de l'industrie microbrassicole dans la région périphérique de l'Est‐du‐Québec. Les microbrasseries de cette région ont émergé selon des processus identitaires et sociaux forts et un attachement à l'environnement local. Les microbrasseurs répondent à des motivations qui sont à la fois économiques mais aussi la quête d'un style de vie, l'attachement à la région, et le désir de faire développer leur communauté.
This paper contributes to the literature on innovation in agri-food sectors. It presents a quantitative analysis of how innovation and innovation capacities differ between agricultural firms and firms in other sectors. With unique survey data on Swedish firms, we show that one-third of the firms in the agriculture sector are innovation creators. Moreover, incremental innovations in the form of firm-level technology adoption are not more prevalent in agriculture than in other sectors. These results indicate that agriculture does not appear as a special case concerning innovation output, besides their higher incidence of process innovations. The peculiarity of the sector rather seems to be related to firm-level innovation capacities. Our results suggest that agriculture is different in how they source relevant knowledge, which is a finding that could question the design of innovation support policies that emphasize collaborative research. Our findings rather point to a need of strengthening in-house knowledge capacities in agricultural firms. That would improve their capacity to participate in and benefit from collaborations with partners operating at higher levels in the knowledge system.
Collaboration and innovation are closely linked in innovation ecosystems (IEs). Yet management research that adopts the IE approach has paid little attention to the combinations of collaborations that foster innovation among rural SMEs. We therefore seek to determine what configurations of collaborations between rural SMEs and actors in their IE most enhance their innovation performance. The study uses fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to explore this question in 64 rural SMEs in Canada. The results confirm that at least one collaboration configuration between SMEs and customers and suppliers is needed to enhance SMEs’ innovation performance. Financial institutions (FIs) are present in configurations where collaborations with education and research institutions (ERIs) are absent. Collaborations with economic development organizations seem less effectual. The main contribution is to expand the current analysis on collaboration configurations in IE to SMEs in rural contexts by using a configurational analysis. The specific contributions are: 1) Balanced collaboration of rural SMEs with their IE actors, stimulates the innovation performance, 2) substitutability and complementarity between horizontal and vertical collaborations facilitate this performance, 3) the conjunction of collaborations with ERIs and FIs can be problematic. Actors of innovation support in rural areas can strengthen their strategies by considering the findings.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CHI224TKJQQNKZZKZHGY/full?target=10.1080/08276331.2021.2004072
Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar los factores que inciden en la localización de los servicios intensivos en conocimiento en la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México. Para ello se utilizan los datos del Directorio Nacional de Unidades Económicas agregados a nivel de código postal, y usando técnicas de regresión Hurdle, cero-infladas de tipo Poisson y negativa binomial, se muestra que estas actividades se localizan principalmente donde existe una densidad importante de empresas así como una diversidad de las mismas. Igualmente, se encontró que la distancia a vialidades y a las estaciones del metro son estadísticamente significativas. Esto apunta a economías de aglomeración tanto de localización como urbanas.
Collaborating with communities: co-production or co-assessment? - Volume 51 Issue 4 - William J. Sutherland, Gorm Shackelford, David Christian Rose
This article presents a critique of the popular and public-policy work of Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, which has been constructed at the nexus of neoclassical economic rationality and celebrity urbanology. Widely recognized as one of the world's leading urbanists, Glaeser has combined a high-flying academic career with public-policy engagement and extensive work as a newspaper columnist and media commentator, enabled by a longstanding affiliation with the Manhattan Institute, a leading conservative think tank. The critique is pointed, but seeks to exceed argumentum ad hominem by calling attention to sociopolitical and institutional factors that have facilitated the accelerated diffusion and enlarged dominion of this model (and mode) of microeconomically rationalized urbanism, including the production of new forms of intellectual marketing, the construction of colonizing variants of urban-economic expertise, and the ongoing rearticulation and creeping consolidation of market-centric policy norms. The article argues that a distinctive form of urban-economic orthodoxy is under construction, based on a potent fusion of scientific reasoning and pop presentation, combining ideologically disciplined applications of neoclassical economics with dissemination in the register of the ?freakonomics' franchise. Edward Glaeser's intellectual accomplishments have been significant, but the ?Glaeser effect' is more than a story of individual scholarly endeavor, calling for more than a merely ?internal' critique. Its conformity to Manhattan Institute principles testifies to a telling consistency of ideological purpose, contributing as it does to a sustained effort to rationalize and normalize lean and limited modes of neoliberal urban governance, fortified by microeconomic reason.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the supremacy of 'Old World' countries (France and Italy) in the international wine market has been challenged by new players, such as Australia, Argentina, Chile and South Africa, which are recording stunning performances in terms both of export volume and value. This book demonstrates that such a spectacular example of catch-up goes beyond simply copying new technologies; it entails creative adaptation and innovation, and introduces a new growth trajectory in which consistent investments in research and science play a key role. © Elisa Giuliani, Andrea Morrison and Roberta Rabellotti 2011. All rights reserved.
Given the economic, societal and environmental relevance of innovation, this paper contrasts various models of innovation, compares how innovation is understood in mainstream economics and evolutionary economics of innovation and juxtaposes the concomitant policy rationales. By discussing two monitoring tools used by the European Commission to assess its member states’ innovation performance, it argues that the science-push model of innovation is still highly influential in the EC STI policy circles, in spite of the significance of non-R&D types of knowledge in innovation processes. Then it explores various types of opportunity costs stemming from the persistent high-tech myth, considers possible historical and sociological reasons for its perseverance and discusses policy implications of the systemic view of innovation, with an emphasis on the case of the EU10 countries. Policy conclusions include: i) several policies affect innovation processes and performance, perhaps even more strongly than STI policies, and hence policy goals and tools need to be orchestrated across several policy domains; ii) STI policies should promote learning and knowledge-intensive activities in all sectors, including low- and medium-technology industries and services; iii) analysts and policy-makers need to avoid the trap of paying too much attention to simplifying ranking exercises; iv) new indicators that better reflect the evolutionary processes of learning and innovation would be needed to support analysis and policy-making; v) the choice of an economics paradigm to guide policy evaluation is likely to be decisive.
The connection between innovation and territory is increasingly being questioned as evidence shows that collaboration and information exchange are not necessarily localised. However, this general observation may differ depending on the industry and type of exchange studied: some types of information may be more transferable than others. This may particularly be the case in the wine industry which, especially in Canada, is concentrated in a few regions, each with its own climate, geography, and institutions. This paper examines the nature and geography of collaboration in this industry, with emphasis on the relative importance of different sources of knowledge, the spatial dimension of exchanges, and their relevance for innovation. We find that certain knowledge exchanges are localised, particularly those that are closely associated with local growing conditions, whereas other more generic industry-level exchanges occur at a wider spatial scale. Local knowledge transfers are characterised less by the type of knowledge exchanged than by the fact that it focuses on local conditions, and is therefore of little value outside the region.
The aim of this article is to analyse the nature and extent of knowledge and information networks in an Italian wine cluster. Moreover, the relation between firms' characteristics and the knowledge network structure is also explored. The empirical findings show that knowledge is unevenly distributed in clusters and that networks of knowledge and information differ a great deal in terms of their structure. In fact, knowledge flows are restricted to a tightly connected community of local producers, differing in terms of knowledge assets, innovation behaviour and overall economic performance with respect to the rest of the firms in the cluster.
This paper investigates how resources available in urban agglomerations influence the organizational form, innovation activity and collaborative linkages of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms. Compared with their counterparts elsewhere, KIBS located in Norwegian large city labour market regions are more likely to be independent of multi-establishment business organizations and thus reliant on resources available externally, in their locations. This is most pronounced in the central and Western business districts of the capital, wherein independent KIBS exhibit high turnover of professionals and are less inclined to engage actively in innovation. Yet, those that do engage use the capital region economy as a platform for engaging with both domestic and international collaboration partners. Only by consecutively analysing these aspects and accounting for the selection processes involved is the empirical analysis able to uncover contrasting firm-level responses to the same urban economy resource base.
The first edition of Regional Innovation Systems introduced a newly developed theoretical and empirical construct as a means of planning and analysing industrial development on a regional scale.
Since 1995, when the first edition was commissioned, there has been a worldwide innovation-led boom and subsequent slump, meaning enormous change has occurred in regional economies. The new edition registers this change and provides an interesting test of the robustness of the original arguments in the book. Not least, more industrial policy making is influenced by the RIS analysis, and many national and regional governments have adopted RIS approaches, along with related instruments like promotion of industry clusters, academic entrepreneurship, regional venture capital and science-led development strategies.
Set within a broadly evolutionary economics perspective, accounts are given of the system interactions occurring between firms and the innovation support infrastructure. Cases are drawnworldwide from Asia, North America and Europe and include a new case study on Slovenia.
This article introduces a theoretical and analytical framework for discussing regional development and regional advantage with reference to a regional innovation system strategy. It uses the differentiated knowledge base approach to transcend the traditional codified-tacit dichotomy of knowledge, and for providing a trans-sectoral understanding of economic activities. Different regional innovation systems are presented and described. The discussion of various types of regional innovation systems is contextualized using a variety of capitalist perspectives. The article concludes by discussing the question if regional innovation systems can exist.
This article presents a model for comparing industrial location patterns over time, applied to Canadian data for 1971 and 1996. The Canadian economy is divided into eighteen industrial sectors (manufacturing and services), of which eight are examined in detail. The analysis addresses several questions. Do observed location models for given industries follow predictable patterns? How stable are those patterns over time? Has the relative sensitivity to “distance” of given industries changed over time? Can significant breaks in location patterns be observed over time? The authors consider the possible impact of information technology on location. If “distance is dying,” as is sometimes argued, this should be reflected in changing location patterns. The results show a high degree of stability over time, suggesting that distance is still very much alive.
The location of high-order producer services has been extensively documented for the 1970s and 1980s when researchers turned their attention to the effects of tertiarization on regional development. In this article we propose, on the one hand, to update the spatial analysis of high-order producer services by investigating whether they have continued to diffuse away from the top of the urban hierarchy between 1991 and 2001. On the other hand, we also propose to incorporate certain hypotheses from the knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) literature, in particular possible spillover effects, synergies between economic sectors and labor market effects, into the spatial analysis. Over and above city size, do these factors contribute to our understanding of the spatial dynamics of high-order producer services? Overall we find that these services reversed their diffusion process during the 1990s, decreasing their presence in smaller cities in peripheral regions. Labor market, synergies, and spillover effects contribute, to some extent, to understanding their overall spatial distribution and its evolution during the 1990s, but region and urban size remain their principal organizing factors across space.
Most analyses of the relationship between spatial clustering and the technological learning of firms have emphasised the influence of the former on the latter, and have focused on intra-cluster learning as the driver of innovative performance. This paper reverses those perspectives. It examines the influence of individual firms’ absorptive capacities on both the functioning of the intra-cluster knowledge system and its interconnection with extra-cluster knowledge. It applies social network analysis to identify different cognitive roles played by cluster firms and the overall structure of the knowledge system of a wine cluster in Chile. The results show that knowledge is not diffused evenly ‘in the air’, but flows within a core group of firms characterised by advanced absorptive capacities. Firms’ different cognitive roles include some—as in the case of technological gatekeepers—that contribute actively to the acquisition, creation and diffusion of knowledge. Others remain cognitively isolated from the cluster, though in some cases strongly linked to extra-cluster knowledge. Possible implications for policy are noted.
This paper contrasts two modes of innovation. One, the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) mode, is based on the production and use of codified scientific and technical knowledge. The other, the Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI) mode, relies on informal processes of learning and experience-based know-how. Drawing on the results of the 2001 Danish DISKO Survey, latent class analysis is used to identify groups of firms that practice the two modes with different intensities. Logit regression analysis is used to show that firms combining the two modes are more likely to innovate new products or services than those relying primarily on one mode or the other. The paper concludes by considering the implications for benchmarking innovation systems and for innovation policy.
The term “knowledge-business intensive services” (KIBS) has been in use for more than 15 years, but has recently become an important subject of analysis and empirical investigation. Beginning with a literature review, this paper presents and discusses the features of KIBS and their role in innovation systems. The following questions are considered: (1) how are KIBS defined? (2) how have KIBS been investigated empirically? and (3) how have the dimensions of knowledge, innovation, and spatial proximity been integrated into analysis?
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to begin to develop a theoretical position for understanding the role of services in innovation in post‐industrial societies.
Design/methodology/approach
– This study develops an evolutionary and institutional approach to understanding the role of certain specialist services in innovation and illustrate how significant they are for the economies of large metropolitan areas in England and Germany.
Findings
– The paper argues that the role of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in innovation may be understood theoretically in terms of evolutionary and institutional economics. From this perspective is is argued that urban economies are path dependent interactive learning systems that develop individually through time. They are increasingly characterized by networked production systems in which KIBS play a key role in the transfer of bespoke knowledge between actors both within and from outside individual cities. As a result the authors argue that KIBS make a significant and place specific contribution to innovation in the cities where they are located.
Originality/value
– The paper suggests a systematic theoretical approach to understanding the currently under‐theorized role of services in general and KIBS in particular in innovation. It also points to the importance of the geography of specialized services.
The paper examines how firms in three regional clusters in Norway dominated by shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and electronics industry, respectively exploit both place-specific local resources as well as external, world-class knowledge to strengthen their competitiveness. From these case-studies we make four points: (1) ideal-typical regional innovation systems, i.e., regional clusters "surrounded" by supporting local organisations, is rather uncommon in Norway; (2) external contacts, outside of the local industrial milieu, are crucial in innovation processes also in many SMEs; (3) innovation processes may nevertheless be regarded as regional phenomena in regional clusters, as regional resources and collaborative networks often have decisive significance for firms' innovation activity; and (4) regional resources include in particular place-specific, contextual knowledge of both tacit and codified nature, that, in combination, is rather geographically immobile. Copyright 2002 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
Purpose
Despite the importance of innovation in and the growth of the wine industry in recent years, empirical research devoted to innovation in this industry remains scarce. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to filling this gap by exploring innovation among Canadian wine firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used in this paper are drawn from an original firm-level survey conducted between April and July 2018 to study the business and innovation strategies of Canadian winery firms over the 2015–2017 period.
Findings
First, the study has identified four innovation modes which are distinct in terms of firms’ strategy, innovation activities, and knowledge sourcing and openness. The second finding is that these different innovation modes are associated with different innovation outputs. The third finding is that there here is a tendency for certain innovation modes to better reflect firms in some regions, although all innovation modes are represented to different degrees in each of the three wine regions.
Originality/value
Empirical research devoted to innovation in this industry remains scarce. This paper contributes to filling this gap by exploring innovation among Canadian wine firms. These firms deal with several challenges and opportunities arising from the production and transformation of cool-climate grapes that impact on business innovation approaches.
The role of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in innovation processes is often understood as that of knowledge intermediaries. Yet KIBS are innovators, and use external services: so what is their nature (or identity) and can it be distinguished from the roles they play? We conceptualize how KIBS can be understood simultaneously as innovators and intermediaries. We survey 407 KIBS innovators, and ask: what characterizes KIBS innovators that use KIBS intermediation? What factors are connected with different aspects of this relationship? Is the relationship conditioned by geographic context? The relationship varies with type of innovation introduced and with user characteristics, but not with geographic context.
This study explores variety in knowledge sourcing and its impact on the degree of novelty in KIBS innovation. The data analysed are part of the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) 2013, Spain's contribution to the European-wide Community Innovation Survey (CIS). Some evidence is found of a positive relationship between variety of market sources used and innovations new to the firm, and of a negative relationship between variety of research sources used and new-to-market innovations. R&D is negatively associated with innovation, whereas other internal information sources are positively associated, suggesting that the definition of R&D in KIBS should be broadened. Results differ between t-KIBS and p-KIBS – in particular cooperation is only associated with t-KIBS innovation.
The paper analyses the activity of research for “innovation knowledge”—here defined as knowledge that can lead to the introduction of service innovations—by Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) companies. It proposes a classification of the possible search approaches adopted by those companies based on two dimensions: the pro-activity of search efforts and the source primarily used. Such classification is then discussed on the basis of the findings of a multiple case-study investigation involving 15 Italian and Polish KIBS companies. The study confirms that KIBS firms follow various approaches to acquire knowledge for innovation: some companies adopt a passive behaviour (i.e. innovative ideas come as a kind of side effect of their daily business activities), while others an active one (namely, they actively search for new ideas originating from various sources); some rely more on internal resources (employees, in-house R&D, internal documents, etc.), while others on external sources (clients, suppliers, service providers, universities, etc.). The results of the study have implications both for research and management that are discussed in the conclusions.
The city as innovation machine. Regional Studies. This paper puts cities and urban regions at the very centre of the processes of innovation and entrepreneurship. It combines the insights of Jane Jacobs and recent urban research on the role of the city with the literature on innovation and entrepreneurship going back to Joseph Schumpeter. Innovation and entrepreneurship and their geography privileges the firm, industry clusters and/or the individual and poses the city as a container for them. By marrying Jacobs’ insights on cities to those of Schumpeter on innovation, it is argued that innovation and entrepreneurship do not simply take in place in cities but in fact require them.
Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) apply knowledge to support their clients’ business processes — to provide solutions to problems that the clients are encountering. How they do this can vary considerably, as will the extent to which knowledge is obtained from and transferred to the client.
With the advent of multinational corporations, the traditional urban service function has 'gone global'. In order to provide services to globalizing corporate clients, the offices of major financial and business service firms across the world have formed a network. It is the myriad of flows between office towers in different metropolitan centres that has produced a world city network. Through an analysis of the intra-company flows of 100 leading global service firms across 315 cities, this book assesses cities in terms of their overall network connectivity, their connectivity by service sector, and their connectivity by world region. Peter Taylor's unique and illuminating book provides the first comprehensive and systematic description and analysis of the world city network as the 'skeleton' upon which contemporary globalization has been built. His analyses challenge the traditional view of the world as a 'mosaic map' of political boundaries. Written by one of the foremost authorities on the subject, this book provides a much needed mapping of the connecting relationships between world cities, and will be an enlightening book for students of urban studies, geography, sociology and planning.
This paper deals with geographical and organizational patterns of knowledge flows in the media industry of southern Sweden, an industry that is characterized by a strong “symbolic” knowledge base. The aim is to address the question of the local versus the non-local as the prime arena for knowledge exchange, and to examine the organizational patterns of knowledge sourcing with specific attention paid to the nature of the knowledge sourced. Symbolic industries draw heavily on creative production and a cultural awareness that is strongly embedded in the local context; thus knowledge flows and networks are expected to be most of all locally configured, and firms to rely on less formalized knowledge sources rather than scientific knowledge or principles. Based on structured and semi-structured interviews with firm representatives, these assumptions are empirically assessed through social network analysis and descriptive statistics. Our findings show that firms rely above all on knowledge that is generated in project work through learning-by-doing and by interaction with other firms in localized networks.
This paper deals with knowledge flows and collaboration between firms in the regional innovation system of southern Sweden. The aim is to analyse how the functional and spatial organization of knowledge interdependencies among firms and other actors varies between different types of industries that draw on different types of knowledge bases. We use data from three case studies of firm clusters in the region: (1) the life science cluster represents an analytical (science-based) industry, (2) the food cluster includes mainly synthetic (engineering-based) industries, and (3) the moving media cluster is considered to be symbolic (artistic based). Knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange in each of the cases are explored and compared using social network analysis in association with data gathered through interviews with firm representatives. Our findings reveal that knowledge exchange in geographical proximity is especially important for industries that rely on a symbolic or synthetic knowledge base, because the interpretation of the knowledge they deal with tends to differ between places. This is less the case for industries drawing on an analytical knowledge base, which rely more on scientific knowledge that is codified, abstract and universal and are therefore less sensitive to geographical distance. Thus, geographical clustering of firms in analytical industries builds on rationales other than the need for proximity for knowledge sourcing.
To make sense of the complexity of the world so that they can act, individuals and institutions need to develop simplified, self-consistent versions of that world. The process of doing so means that much of what is known about the world needs to be excluded from those versions, and in particular that knowledge which is in tension or outright contradiction with those versions must be expunged. This is ‘uncomfortable knowledge’. The paper describes four implicit strategies which institutions use to keep uncomfortable knowledge at bay: denial, dismissal, diversion and displacement. It concludes by suggesting that ‘clumsy’ arrangements may need to be constructed to ensure that uncomfortable knowledge is not excluded from policy debates, especially when dealing with ‘wicked problems’ where the accepted version excludes knowledge that is crucial for making sense of and addressing the problem.
This article discusses the concepts of knowledge-intensive workers and firms. the functional view is questioned and a perspective on knowledge as institutionalized myth and rationality-surrogate is proposed. the ambiguity of knowledge work is emphasized and it is argued that a crucial dimension of a knowledge-intensive organization concerns the struggle with this ambiguity, which leads to efforts to refine various rhetorical strategies. Besides those stressing knowledge, science and rationality, the article points to rhetoric describing employees in knowledge-intensive firms as possessing other personal qualities and orientations than personnel employed in bureaucracies.
Technologies are at present generated in the framework of a system of paradigms which originated in the developed world, which is not adequate for the developing countries. This article proposes a research methodology that, while generating technologies appropriate for rural areas, contributes at the same time to the building of a new system of paradigms adequate for the needs and conditions of developing societies. The final aim of the methodology, which presupposes local participation, is to define a ‘technological space’ which is the set of requirements and constraints that the technology has to satisfy. Any technology which fits that space is appropriate, whether locally produced or imported.
This paper explores knowledge city and knowledge-based urban development concepts, discusses the principles of a knowledge city, and portrays its distinguishing characteristics and processes. It analyses Melbourne’s knowledge-based urban development experience by scrutinising its initiatives on culture, science, technology and innovation, and policies in urban, economic and social development. The paper also illustrates how the city administration played a key role in developing Melbourne as a globally recognised, entrepreneurial and competitive city. It concludes with arguing Melbourne as an emerging knowledge city, identifying its key success factors, and providing some insights for policy makers of other cities in designing their knowledge-based urban development.
This paper reviews what we know about the spatial manifestations of knowledge. The knowledge production function addresses the easily measured portion of knowledge produced. Research on learning, particularly interactive and collective learning, in firms and in innovation systems, promises to unveil the human and organizational processes by which knowledge is created, stored, and transmitted to others. Our understanding of innovation and technological change depends on how well we tackle knowledge and its geography. Copyright (c) 2010, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This paper juxtaposes two strategies to conceive human expertise and unveils how they mould one's imagination on the spatiality of innovation processes. While the noun 'knowledge' signifies a rationalistic approach and entails a geography that propels an 'argument of agglomeration', the verb 'knowing' denotes a situated-in-practice understanding and inheres an 'argument of place'. The paper discusses in how far an extension of the so far less influential practice view might complement the more traditional agglomeration accounts. The ontological discrepancies between both approaches can be used as theoretical springboards to illuminate more fully the key ambivalences of a geography of knowledge creation.
This paper addresses three issues in the context of knowledge-intensive service (KIS) development, related to the competitive base of cities and the degree to which they possess distinctive sources of innovativeness. The first is, how may growing KIS, or consultancy, use influence client innovation? Although this is inherently difficult to demonstrate, the expertise and modes of operation of consultancies suggest that they do influence technical and organisational change amongst clients. The second issue is the segmentation of consultancy influence, especially by sector and types of firm. Finally, how far does the urban base of consultancy supply imply local, specifically urban, benefits for client innovation? Consultancy services are often delivered over wide areas from their urban bases, within national and international nexuses of corporate and public-sector service exchange. This question cannot be answered by focusing only on local exchange. Urban client-consultancy interaction needs to be set within a national and even an international context of specialist expertise exchange.
Within economic geography and industrial economics, interest in the concept of tacit knowledge has grown steadily in recent years. Nelson and Winter helped revive this interest in the work of Michael Polanyi by using the idea of tacit knowledge to inform their analysis of routines and evolutionary dynamics of technological change. More recently, the concept has received closer scrutiny. This paper offers a further contribution to this project by offering a critical analysis of the prevailing implicit and explicit economic geographies of tacit knowledge, focusing on the relationship between tacit knowledge and institutions. While much of the innovation literature focuses on a single question -- can tacit knowledge be effectively shared over long distances -- the paper argues that this issue cannot be properly addressed without considering a broader range of related questions. It highlights three tacit knowledge problems which, together, provide a more complete view of this issue. First, how is tacit knowledge produced? Second, how do firms find and appropriate tacit knowledge? Third, how is tacit knowledge reproduced or shared -- that is, how does tacit knowledge promote social learning processes, and must the participants be geographically proximate in order for effective learning to occur? The paper revisits Michael Polanyi's original conception of tacit knowledge, showing it to be limited by its experiential and cognitive emphasis, with insufficient attention devoted to the role and origins of social context. Alternatively, the paper argues that one cannot sort out the geography of tacit knowledge without inquiring into the foundations of context and culture, and the institutional underpinnings of economic activity, taking the work of another Polanyi -- Karl -- as the logical starting point. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
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