Clusters, Networks and Innovation

Governements and regional authorities often express the belief that the key to prosperity and economic expansion is related to the ability of countries to sustain regional clusters of competitiveness and innovation. The book reviews the most important conceptual approaches to the analysis of the emergence, growth and evolution of clusters of innovation. Drawing from the different experiences of industrial districts and high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, Boston’s biotech region, and Hsinchu-Taipei, the contributions in this book offer a broad interpretative framework and policy implications for the creation and strenghtening of competitive clusters. Themes include: the wide variety of existing clusters and the diversity in their emergence and growth; the international mobility of factors and demand linkages; the role of different network types and the social setting; the accumulation of capabilities in key large actors and the importance of spinoffs and new firm formation; the role of different learning regimes and sectoral specificities; the importance of social networks, labour mobility, and face-to-face contacts as vehicles of knowledge spillovers.
Broad implications are drawn for the design of policies to encourage successful economic clusters in developed and developing clusters.

Author Biography

Stefano Breschi is an Associate Professor of Industrial Economics at Università L.Bocconi and a member of the Board of Directors at Cespri-Bocconi, Milan, Italy. He has published in various international journals. His main research interests concern economics of innovation, industrial economics, industrial dynamics, regional economics, networks and clusters, industrial and technology policy. Franco Malerba is Full Professor of Industrial Economics at
Università L.Bocconi. He is Director of CESPRI (Center for Research on Innovation and Internationalization) at Bocconi University. He has been president of the International Schumpeter Society and is currently
president of EARIE (European Association for Research in Industrial Economics). He is Editor of the journal Industrial and Corporate Change, and Associate Editor of Research Policy and the Journal of Evolutionary Economics. He has published various books and several papers in various international journals. His main research interests concern economics of innovation, industrial economics, industrial dynamics, international competitiveness, and technology policy.