Knowledge Bases and the Geography of Innovation
Author
Summary, in English
In order to account for the diversity of channels through which knowledge can be sourced and exchanged, particular attention is devoted to the notion of networks that connect firms and other organisations inside and outside the region, but also to other modes of knowledge transfer such as monitoring of collaborators and competitors, the mobility of knowledge embodied in skilled labour, and informal relations between individuals within knowledge communities. The dissertation reveals that the organisational and geographical scope of knowledge exchange is strongly (but not exclusively) shaped by the type of knowledge base that underlies innovation activities. The results point in the direction that symbolic industries, partly as a consequence of the context-dependency of cultural knowledge, are deeply embedded in localised knowledge networks, while knowledge exchange in synthetic industries is less locally organised and more governed by the national institutional framework. Analytical industries tend to rely less on localised sources of knowledge, and more on specialised knowledge providers in other parts of the world.
The research design is inspired by critical realist ontology, epistemology and methodology, and draws on a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. The empirical focus lies on several regional industries (or clusters) in different parts of Europe, with the main attention on the new media, food and life science industries in Scania, southern Sweden.
The dissertation consists of five articles that are published or forthcoming in peer-reviewed journals, preceded by an opening part which outlines the theoretical and methodological background framing the individual articles.
Department/s
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Publication/Series
Meddelanden från Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografi. Avhandlingar
Issue
5
Full text
- Available as PDF - 19 MB
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Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Lund University Press
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
- Human Geography
Keywords
- economic geography
- regional innovation systems
- learning regions
- differentiated knowledge bases
- knowledge networks
- social network analysis
- Scania
- Sweden
Status
Published
Supervisor
- Björn Asheim
- Jerker Moodysson
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-7473-374-7
Defence date
2 October 2012
Defence time
13:15
Defence place
Department of Human Geography, room 128 (Flygeln), Sölvegatan 10, Lund
Opponent
- Ron Boschma (Professor)