Richards; 7.

How logistics clusters can create jobs while providing companies with competitive advantage. Why is Memphis home to hundreds of motor carrier terminals and distribution centers? Why does the tiny island-nation of Singapore handle a fifth of the world's maritime containers and half the world's annual supply of crude oil? Which jobs can replace lost manufacturing jobs in advanced economies? Some of the answers to these questions are rooted in the phenomenon of logistics clusters—geographically concentrated sets of logistics-related business activities. In this book, supply chain management expert Yossi Sheffi explains why Memphis, Singapore, Chicago, Rotterdam, Los Angeles, and scores of other locations have been successful in developing such clusters while others have not. Sheffi outlines the characteristic “positive feedback loop” of logistics clusters development and what differentiates them from other industrial clusters; how logistics clusters “add value” by generating other industrial activities; why firms should locate their distribution and value-added activities in logistics clusters; and the proper role of government support, in the form of investment, regulation, and trade policy. Sheffi also argues for the most important advantage offered by logistics clusters in today's recession-plagued economy: jobs, many of them open to low-skilled workers, that are concentrated locally and not “offshorable.” These logistics clusters offer what is rare in today's economy: authentic success stories. For this reason, numerous regional and central governments as well as scores of real estate developers are investing in the development of such clusters. View a trailer for the book at: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/22284-logistics-clusters-yossi-sheffi

The social sciences have sophisticated models of choice and equilibrium but little understanding of the emergence of novelty. Where do new alternatives, new organizational forms, and new types of people come from? Combining biochemical insights about the origin of life with innovative and historically oriented social network analyses, John Padgett and Walter Powell develop a theory about the emergence of organizational, market, and biographical novelty from the coevolution of multiple social networks. In the short run, they argue, actors make relations, but in the long run, they argue, actors make actors. Organizational novelty arises from spillover across intertwined networks, which tips reproducing biographical and production flows. This theory is developed through formal deductive modeling and through a wide range of careful and original historical case studies, ranging from early capitalism and state formation, to the transformation of communism, to the emergence of contemporary biotechnology and Silicon Vally. -- from back cover.

Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, and associated institutions in a particular field that are present in a nation or region. The development and upgrading of clusters is an important agenda for governments, companies, and other institutions. Cluster growth initiatives are an important new direction in economic policy, building on earlier efforts in macroeconomic stabilization, privatization, market opening, and cost reduction related to doing business. Comparing High Technology Firms in Developed and Developing Countries: Cluster Growth Initiatives is the leading source of information for readers interested in this field of study as it promotes scientific discussion on policies and practice of cluster growth, as well as covers the emerging research topics which are going to define the future of the management of technology. Furthermore, this book demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of technology policy based on observations of differential growth rate of high technology firms in clusters, and explores the factors that explain superior performance of high technology firms to contribute the improvement of technology policy in both developed and developing countries.

"[The authors] propose a radical new theory to explain the nature of innovation ecosystems -- human networks that generate extraordinary creativity and output. They argue that free market thinking fails to consider the impact of human nature on the innovation process. This ambitious work challenges the basic assumptions that economists have held for over a century."--Page 4 of cover

About the book The contents of most of the chapters included in this volume were originally presented and discussed during the academic workshop ‘High-tech Valleys and Research Triangles in the East of the Netherlands and elsewhere’, held on 30 November and 1 December 2005 at the Wageningen International Congress Centre (WICC) in the Netherlands. At that time we had an informal agreement with Rob Bogers, series editor of the Wageningen UR Frontis book series that, if the quality and quantity of the talks and papers at the seminar would be sufficient and if there was willingness among the (potential) authors, an edited book volume based upon the results of the workshop would be a possibility. After the workshop, when we had a critical mass of ten chapters and a dedicated group of committed authors, the book project was given the green light. As editors we realized that there were still a couple of topics and themes missing, and when we had found colleagues for these four additional chapters that needed to be written, our Frontis book was on the roll! Although most of the time it was great fun, the whole process of writing, reviewing, rewriting, editing and proofreading took a lot of time; much more time than we originally had foreseen. We would like to thank all authors of the fourteen chapters of this book for their excellent contributions.

This volume contains the proceedings of the international conference "Complexity and Industrial Clusters: Dynamics and Models in Theory and Practice", organized by Fondazione Comunita e Innovazione and held in Milan on June 19 and 20, 2001 under the aegis of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (founded in Rome in 1604), one of the oldest and most famous national academies of science in the world. Fondazione Comunita e Innovazione encourages research and the dissemination of knowledge about social, economic, cultural and civil issues. It promotes research and innovation related to local production systems and industrial districts, with special reference to: the interactions between large companies and SMEs (small and medium-size enterprises), the effects of industrial districts on the development and welfare of their communities and of neighbouring areas, the effects of globalisation on these local systems of productions. Fondazione Comunita e Innovazione was created in Milan in 1999. It supports studies, publications, and events, both on its own and in cooperation with corporations, research institutes, foundations, associations and universities. It also grants scientific sponsorship to research that is in line with its mission, as set forth in its by-laws. The founding member of the Fondazione is Edison (formerly Monted:son). The other subscribing members, in historical order, are: Ausimont, Tecnimont, Eridania, Accenture, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.