In Economics, networks are increasingly used to describe the many links created between independent companies, as well as between them and other institutions (universities, banks, venture capital, etc.). In the current global and knowledge-based economy, they can be characterised as knowledge factories and knowledge boosters. They feed the internal processes of innovation (collaborative innovation) or the external processes of innovation, created by the propagation effects that come from inter-firm collaboration. The book explains how innovation networks are at the origin of the production of new knowledge that will be transformed and used in common as well as in separated production processes. This characteristic of networks as knowledge factories gives incentives to further investment in the production of knowledge and ensures the cumulativeness of the innovation process. Some of the authors clearly take a territorial point of view and study how clusters (in different parts of the world: Europe, Eastern Asia and North America) propelled by the quality of the innovation networks they enclose, can be characterised as knowledge pools into which the local actors will be able to draw to reinforce their individual and collective competitiveness. This book also includes analyses of the quality of the networks built within clusters, which may help their identification.

Examining the role of the much-vaunted concepts of regional clusters in the prosperity and economic expansion of countries, this work looks at the different experiences of industrial districts and high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, Boston's biotech region, and Hsinchu-Taipei.

Innovation is the motor of economic change. Over the last fifteen years, researches in innovation processes have emphasised the systemic features of innovation. Whilst innovation system analysis traditionally takes a static institutional approach, cluster analysis focuses on interaction and the dynamics of technology and innovation. First, the volume gives an overview of the different levels of analysis from which the innovation behaviour of firms has been observed in the past. The book then presents a distinct cluster approach as a useful and innovative tool to analyse the configuration and dynamics of networks of actors involved in innovative processes. This approach emphasises the possibilities of enhancing cluster benefits by introducing virtual links between cluster actors. Empirical evidence is provided for the automotive components and the telecommunication industries. By restricting the discussion to Germany and Italy, the authors are able to explore the role that national innovation systems play as a framework in which clusters operate.

Policies to stimulate innovation at national and local levels must both build on and contribute to the dynamics of innovative clusters. This book presents a series of papers written by policy makers and academic experts in the field, that demonstrate why and how this can be done.

In Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Business Clusters, Panos Piperopoulos provides a comprehensive introduction to what entrepreneurship is all about, how and why entrepreneurs innovate and how innovation systems operate. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute the backbone of most economies, so the author examines their characteristics and the crucial role played by the owners and entrepreneurs who innovate to ensure the survival and continued growth of their firms. He also includes the particular phenomena that arise where the entrepreneurs are either female or from ethnic groups, or where the context is that of a developing region or country. The importance of co-operative strategic alliances and networks between firms is discussed, along with how these strengthen SMEs' competitiveness. The concept of open innovation has been proposed as a new paradigm for the management of innovation and the author presents a hypothetical model for enhancing the competitiveness and performance of SMEs by properly utilizing employees' creative potential, emotional intelligence, tacit knowledge and innovative ideas. The contemporary model of business clusters, involving partnerships with competitors, agents, universities, research centres and local, regional and national governments is discussed. The ways, means and methods through which SMEs' competitiveness and innovation can be enhanced within business clusters is illustrated by cases that identify four types of SMEs, that behave differently and play different roles in the networks and clusters of which they form a part, but all of whose performance and competitiveness is a function of their position and role in the wider scheme of things.

The world's leading experts contribute to our understanding of regional innovation, cluster formation and the factors that influence regional productivity and innovative performance. The text improves our understanding of the reasons why, how and where innovation clusters emerge, as well as the factors that determine their respective success or failure. In doing so, it provides a timely and comprehensive picture on innovation, location, networks and clusters as important means in an environment of intensifying interregional competition. The book is written for professional researchers as well as for students and practitioners in politics, business and consultancy.

This book presents:• The results of an empirical analysis of the new phenomenon of virtual clusters (VCs), which highlight the dynamics of these emerging innovation networks in the digital economy; the challenges that this dynamics represents for the conventional theories, which are unable to define a comprehensive framework that supports the development of these networks.• An overview of the most significant theoretical approaches to innovation networks, and their rethinking in the digital economy scenario. Following a neo-Schumpeterian approach, a particular focus is on the opportunity to integrate the economic benefits coming from the geographical proximity, with the advantages related to the “organisational proximity” allowed by the ICT networks.• The constituent points of a strategy aimed at sustaining the developing processes of a VC in a drawback region, and a description of the e-Salento project, an application of this strategy to an Italian drawback region, the Salento. Some general implications of the project for theory and practice are also discussed.• The architecture and the master plan of two initiatives within the e-Salento project, concerning the agribusiness and tourism sectors.• A model of leadership, to guide innovation in an organisation competing in the digital economy, including both firms and regions.The perspective advanced in this book addresses issues concerned with VC growth and regions' economic development processes that are common to both the regional studies and the innovation management literature; the book represents an important empirically grounded contribution to them. Furthermore, several scholars argue that new development models are emerging for firms and regions. There is a lack of published work that provides empirical grounding and/or analytical models of firms' and regions' development processes in the Net Economy.