The purpose of this volume is to analyze the microfoundations of knowledge spillovers. The microeconomic analysis of spillovers leads to the insight that the spillover and flow of knowledge is not at all automatic. Instead, this volume suggests that a filter exists between knowledge and its economic application. The focus of this volume is on several key mechanisms that serve to reduce this filter and facilitate the flow of knowledge. In particular, the volume draws on an emerging literature identifying the role of knowledge spillovers to investigate significance of labor mobility and informal networks as mechanisms facilitating the flow of knowledge. No field in economics has dealt extensively with the microeconomics of knowledge spillovers. This volume brings together scholars from a broad spectrum of fields including labor economics, regional economics, the economics of innovation and technological change, and sociology to introduce new insights yielded from the microfoundations of knowledge spillovers.

This book investigates dynamic regions in the context of greater global interaction in a world economy increasingly driven by knowledge and innovation. It offers novel empirical evidence on the underlying factors of the growth performance of these spaces. In particular, the following questions are addressed: What role is there for research, education and innovation in the development strategies of the dynamic growth regions? What are the risks and consequences of dynamic growth on patterns of world growth and development, competitiveness, inequalities, and convergence? What development strategies should be promoted at national and international levels to promote a growing and more sustainable world economy? What are the implications of the emerging new competitors for Europe’s competitiveness? Using an innovative, integrated framework of analysis, the contributions in this book combine a wide array of complex theoretical and methodological approaches.

In this book, the authors illustrate how social networks can play a very significant role in the technological catch up process in moderate innovative countries. Using an innovative approach to the study of entrepreneurship in knowledge-intensive sectors, the book analyses the role of social networks in the access and deployment of the variety of competences and resources required for the successful creation of knowledge-intensive companies, which has not yet been studied sufficiently in this context.

'This volume is an important step in furthering the discussion about how cluster strategies work and the implications for theory and policy.' – Jennifer Clark, Review of Regional Studies The role of innovations and clusters has increasingly dominated local and regional development policies in recent decades. This authoritative and accessible Handbook considers important aspects of high-tech clusters, analyses insightful cluster case studies, and provides a number of recommendations for cluster policies. The chapters in this Handbook are written by international experts in the field and present evidence of the scope, effects, and potential of clusters as concentrations of innovative activities. The authors emphasize that cluster development is not the only option for local and regional development and argue that for cluster policies to be worthwhile, supporting policies in fields such as education, R&D, transportation, and communication infrastructure must accompany most cluster policies. Furthermore, several contributions stress that clusters often develop along a life cycle that may end with decline and even the disappearance of clusters. Consequently, this Handbook provides the basis for improving both research on innovation and clusters and the formulation and implementation of cluster policies. Furnishing the reader with rich, comprehensive discussion of innovations and clusters, this Handbook will be an essential source for researchers and academics in the field, as well as policymakers, planners and specialists, development experts and agencies, and consultants.

The aim of the Managing Networks of Creativity is to improve our understanding of creativity and the management of creativity, as discussed in the fields of management (including strategic management, organization science, organizational behaviour, and entrepreneurship), economics, sociology, regional studies, and political science. While research on creativity has made several important contributions to the theoretical literature, little attention has been paid to the development and testing of formal theoretical models, especially in those cases where creativity is the result not so much of individual behaviour than the outcome of collective efforts, connecting individuals in organizations, social networks, projects, geographic clusters, and so forth. The proposed volume includes studies, both conceptual and empirical, which, as a whole, "deconstruct" the concept of creativity and the management of creativity by identifying specific situations, contexts, firms, clusters, and districts in which creative processes evolve. The reader is provided with in-depth discussions of theoretical issues and a range of descriptive cases and survey data that the authors use to explore or test concepts and models. Overall, the volume aims to integrate current debates concerning the role of creativity (and innovation) in economic and social development.

This book tackles the different aspects of the creation and transmission of knowledge in the context of the characteristics of a general purpose technology. Nanotechnology is investigated as showcase example. Particular emphasis is put on the role of the composition of knowledge as well as the corresponding knowledge spillovers on the one hand and on the concrete impact of collaboration and knowledge sharing in innovator networks on the other hand.