First published in 1999. The key to successful regional development is more a personality issue than a global one, contends social economist Dr. James Cécora. With a fresh new interdisciplinary approach, Cécora tackles traditional economic theory to show that a distinct type of individual, the 'innovative entrepreneur', can do more to secure economic stability in a particular region than any multinational corporation. Arguing that global economics have spiraled out of control, Cécora builds a case for supporting and promoting the development of entrepreneurs at the local and regional level. These individuals will, he says, work at strengthening the regional economy over the long term because of their permanent attachment to a region, as well as in vested self-interest. Cécora compares the personalities of corporate managers to self-starting entrepreneurs, drawing the conclusion that the risk-taking ability of entrepreneurial types prompts more creative thinking and regionally appropriate action and solutions. This willingness to try new approaches is often a key to success.

There has been a great deal of restructuring of rural places and communities under globalisation, highlighting the interaction of local and global actors to produce new hybrid socio-economic relations. Recent research highlights the heterogeneity of globalisation in which rural places are different to each other, but also different to how they were in the past. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of academics, and comparative case studies from Europe (West and East) and Asia, this book explores and discusses opportunities and challenges associated with globalising rural places, and identifies possibilities for policy and practical intervention by rural development actors. Special attention is paid to multi-scalar processes through which rural places are reshaped through globalisation. Taking a geographical approach, the book produces new critical work on the interdependence between globalisation and rural spaces. It is organised into five sections: Part I focuses on ’Global-Rural Linkages’ showing the multifaceted interrelation between actors at different geographical scale and demonstrating that globalisation is not only external to rural spaces. Part II on ’Rural Entrepreneurship and Labour Markets’ explores the potential of business start-ups in rural spaces which are not only necessity driven. Part III ’Rural Innovation and Learning’ shows that rural places are also places for innovation and learning. Part IV on ’Rural Policies and Governance’ argues that regional policies for rural places should promote side activities to maintain social capital and that regional policy should take a more integrative perspective between urban and rural spaces in order to explore complementary development paths. The concluding chapter ’New Approaches to Rural Spaces’ discusses new approaches to globalising rural places in relation to the preceding chapters published in this book.

This title was first published in 2001. Focusing on new industries, policies and new forms of governance, the internationally renowned contributors to this volume examine the factors promoting the sub-national economic growth that is paradoxically occurring in an era of globalization.

The contributors to this book look at the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in emerging regions in India, China, Ireland, Eastern Europe, North and South America, and North and South-East Asia. The organization is designed to take the reader from a general framework for understanding the relationship between economic development and entrepreneurship to more specific examples of how entrepreneurs and their firms respond to the opportunity and threats that are dynamically evolving in such places. The book represents the first serious attempt to suggest new theoretical frameworks for understanding the emergence of entrepreneurship in regions that do not have all of the classical prerequisites (such as financial and human capital, favorable geography, institutional infrastructures, and so on) predicted in extant development models.

Social capital as a concept, is a comparatively recent addition to the regional economic and innovation literature. Facets of social capital are generally acknowledged to include trust, collaboration, cooperation, bridging and bonding social network ties, and reciprocity. Nevertheless, forms of social capital such as bonding and bridging social capital, are less frequently explored in the literature. Innovation and Social Capital in Organizational Ecosystems breaks down the concept of innovation into its main components, which represent a spectrum of innovation activity from technology-based innovation to hidden and social innovation, in order to support executives concerned with innovation and social capital in different work communities and environments. Highlighting a range of topics including regional development, social innovation, network capital, and more, this book is ideally designed for researchers, professionals, students, policymakers, and practitioners.

This book focuses on the small car segment of India's automotive industry to explain the emergence of lead markets. The authors contend that the current understanding of lead markets does not sufficiently explain the business practices that are born out of the intensified globalization of innovation. Lead markets are considered crucial for the global diffusion of new products and this book investigates whether sustainable lead markets can also emerge in developing economies, and if so, under which conditions. The authors question the conventional wisdom and propose updates and extensions to the lead market theory to better reflect the changing ground realities on ground.