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2013 | Book

Introduction: Knowledge and the Geography of the Economy Read chapter Read first chapter

Knowledge and the Economy

Editors: Peter Meusburger, Johannes Glückler, Martina el Meskioui

Publisher: Springer Netherlands

Book Series : Knowledge and Space

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

The broad spectrum of topics surrounding what is termed the ‘knowledge economy’ has attracted increasing attention from the scientific community in recent years. The nature of knowledge-intensive industries, the spatiality of knowledge, the role of proximity and distance in generating functional knowledge, the transfer of knowledge via networks, and the complex interplay between knowledge, location and economic development are all live academic issues. This book, the fifth volume in Springer’s Knowledge and Space series, focuses on the last of these: the multiple relationships between knowledge, the economy, and space. It reflects the conceptual and methodological multidisciplinarity emerging from this scholarship, yet where there has up to now been a notable lack of communication between some of the contributing disciplines, resulting in lexical and other confusions, this volume brings concord and to foster interdisciplinarity. These complications have been especially evident in our understanding of the spatiality of knowledge, the part that spatial contexts play in knowledge creation and diffusion, and the relevance of face-to-face contacts, all of which are addressed in these pages.

The material here is grouped into four sections—knowledge creation and economy, knowledge and economic development, knowledge and networks, and knowledge and clusters. It assembles new concepts and original empirical research from geography, economics, sociology, international business relations, and management. The book addresses a varied audience interested in the historical and spatial foundations of the knowledge economy and is intended to bridge some of the gaps between the differing approaches to research on knowledge, the economy, and space.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Knowledge Creation and the Geography of the Economy

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction: Knowledge and the Geography of the Economy
Abstract
This introductory chapter revisits the crucial role of knowledge and innovation in the process of economic development. It challenges some of the persistent puzzles in traditional economic thought about knowledge and prepares the scene for an inclusive and multidisciplinary dialogue about the concept, creation and reproduction of knowledge. Is economic growth finite? What drives future economic development? Does geography make a difference to where and how economies develop? Though these fundamental questions lie at the heart of economics, many academic disciplines contribute to the promising answer as to how knowledge could make sustained economic growth possible. This introduction develops a geographical perspective of the knowledge economy and offers points of departure for a more realisitic and situated approach to the relation between knowledge and economy.
Johannes Glückler, Peter Meusburger, Martina El Meskioui
Chapter 2. Relations Between Knowledge and Economic Development: Some Methodological Considerations
Abstract
Although superior knowledge, competence, and expertise; high levels of training; and major investment in education and research are often regarded as prerequisites of economic success, the relationships between knowledge and economic action are not as straightforward as they may seem in the literature. The spatial social, political, and economic context in which actors or social systems seek to achieve their objectives largely determines whether competence or research can be parlayed into economic success. Yet a milieu, or context, is not an independent variable in a cause-and-effect relation influencing what actors do. It represents potential that actors must be able and willing to use to achieve the desired effect. It can also impede some actors in the development of their skills and can obstruct the performance of innovative organizations. The author tries to shed additional light on the relationships between knowledge and the economy.
Peter Meusburger
Chapter 3. A Microeconomic Approach to the Dynamics of Knowledge Creation
Abstract
The aim of this contribution is to analyze the period of collective research extending from the emergence of the first innovative idea to the moment when a patent can be written and claimed. The authors argue that the period of collective research is characterized by the building of public or semipublic good in order to equip the innovative idea with a “codebook” (shared codes, tests, and “grammar of usage”) and to reveal its economic potential. They emphasize the role of knowing communities as the active units in the dynamic process of invention and discuss some of the consequences in two domains of application: property rights and creative clusters.
Patrick Cohendet, Jean-Alain Héraud, Patrick Llerena
Chapter 4. Knowledge Creation and the Geographies of Local, Global, and Virtual Buzz
Abstract
This chapter is a systematic investigation of the effects that new communication technologies and different organizational forms of economic interaction have on knowledge creation and innovation processes. The emphasis is on the potential of combining computer-mediated communication (CMC) with forms of temporary and permanent face-to-face (F2F) interaction. It is pointed out that permanent co-location and F2F interaction may be efficient in some contexts but not in others and that temporary and virtual interaction, supported by CMC, are increasingly becoming the basis for establishing trans-local production networks. By combining results from social psychology with economic geography, the authors argue that there is no generally superior spatial fix for economic interaction. Different spatial configurations can be advantageous in different production and innovation contexts, even over large distances, without permanent or even regular F2F contact.
Harald Bathelt, Philip G. Turi
Chapter 5. Creativity: Who, How, Where?
Abstract
Human creativity is both individual and collective. As symbols, signs, brands, and other intangibles grow in importance, the search for creativity and how to manage it has increased in importance. Organizations such as corporations and research institutions try to enhance and manage the collective creativity of their employees, but creativity remains to a large degree both unpredictable and unmanageable. The location of creativity is mainly urban, as people interact within cities to generate creative places and urban creative scenes. Just as creativity cannot be managed completely, it cannot be fully planned.
Edward J. Malecki
Chapter 6. The Problem of Mobilizing Expertise at a Distance
Abstract
This chapter conceptualizes knowledge management within a trade-off between organizational coherence and geographical expansion. It focuses on an extensive corporate case study of a globally distributed medium-sized technology service company in order to explore the relational architecture of interpersonal knowledge transfer among all employees and across all global locations. A social network analysis is used to illustrate the network of knowledge flow, assess its vulnerability, and investigate the effect that different management programs have on global knowledge exchange. Although geographical separation is a key barrier to knowledge exchange, expatriation programs are found to be the most effective driver of international interpersonal knowledge transfer.
Johannes Glückler

Knowledge and Economic Development

Frontmatter
Chapter 7. Knowledge, Capabilities, and the Poverty Trap: The Complex Interplay Between Technological, Social, and Geographical Factors
Abstract
This chapter explores the suggestion that technological capabilities, if they are to lead to development, need to be accompanied by a broad set of social capabilities reflecting not only such things as the provision of education and good governance, but also the spread of values, beliefs, and institutions that encourage members of society to contribute actively to the development process. The empirical analysis presented in the chapter, based on a large dataset of relevant indicators for countries at different levels of development, lends considerable support to this suggestion. However, the analysis also shows that some countries, mostly tropical, are disadvantaged by a powerful vicious circle of high fertility rates, low education, and high frequency of serious disease, which hamper the building of technological and social capabilities and perpetuate poverty. The authors conclude that there is no easy “technological fix” to the problem of underdevelopment.
Jan Fagerberg, Martin Srholec
Chapter 8. Economics, Geography, and Knowing “Development”
Abstract
Theories and conceptions of the economy profoundly shape how it comes to be known. In this chapter the author compares and contrasts the sociospatial ontologies of economists and geographers, theorizing the relationship between geography and economic development. These groups of scholars share the view that neoliberal globalization has undermined development prospects for the disadvantaged, but their contrasting ontologies generate different understandings of capitalism and of how to resolve this problem. Economists know capitalism as in principle capable of alleviating poverty and uneven geographical development, concluding that development is best achieved by following a common path to capitalist development everywhere, as pioneered by advanced capitalist societies. Geographers know capitalism as generative of inequality and uneven geographical development, as a system that forces disadvantaged social groups and geographical locations to find different approaches to development in order to overcome their current disadvantage conducive.
Eric Sheppard
Chapter 9. Knowing Mycellf™: Personalized Medicine and the Economization of Prospective Knowledge about Bodily Fate
Abstract
The author explores the emergence of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing as a means of economizing information or knowledge about “bodily fate.” She begins by examining the parallels and incommensurabilities between the kinds of bodily information that have been produced historically and those now generated by the application of advanced genome sequencing technologies. She then explores how contemporary understandings of disease are coproduced by individuals identified as potential constituents of disease communities by these forms of testing. The chapter concludes with a review of the implications that this involvement in the coproduction of understanding of disease has for the global regulation of DTC genetic testing.
Bronwyn Parry
Chapter 10. KnowledgeScapes
A New Conceptual Approach and Selected Empirical Findings from Research on Knowledge Milieus and Knowledge Networks
Abstract
The complex interplay between accelerating knowledge dynamics, heterogeneous spatial developments, and conflict-driven transaction fields is a core constellation of actual societal and spatial processes. Many of the interdependencies involved are not yet precisely understood, and verified causal explanations are scarce. This chapter presents a new research heuristics in order to advance inquiry in this foggy field. It addresses the coevolutionary interrelations between knowledge, space, and milieu. The conceptual outfit, major empirical findings, and selected strategic and governance-related consequences for knowledge-based urban regional developments are sketched out in seven short argumentative steps.
Ulf Matthiesen

Knowledge and Geographical Clusters

Frontmatter
Chapter 11. Organizational Legacy and the Internal Dynamics of Clusters: The U.S. Human Biotherapeutics Industry, 1976–2002
Abstract
Using data on the human biotherapeutics industry in the United States from the period 1976 through 2002, the authors explore the organizational origins of entrepreneurs to understand the location and size of industry clusters. Specifically, they examine the effect that different types of organizational legacy—defined as the organization in which the entrepreneurs were previously employed—have on the entry of new firms. The study reveals that regional resources influence the location of industry clusters but that concentrations of entrepreneurs who hail from the same population exert an important, differentiating influence and define a local culture that affects the propensity for information-sharing and collaboration. This research shows that the largest impact on local entry stems from a concentration of founders with prior experience in organizations that are more networked than hierarchical.
Maryann Feldman, Elaine Romanelli
Chapter 12. Knowledge and Space in Economic History: Innovations in the German Empire, 1877–1918
Abstract
Analyzing a new data set of 39,343 high-value patents, the authors find ample evidence that interindustry knowledge spillover between technologically, economically, and geographically related industries were a major source of innovative activities during German industrialization. It is discovered that most of the parallel patent booms of the successive waves of technological progress (railroads, dyes, chemicals, and electrical engineering) occurred in innovative industries that were closely related technologically. The authors then show that these industries were often also geographically clustered. Nearly all German regions that maintained or improved their above-average innovativeness over time had at least one innovative cluster in the fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or chemicals. The existence and success of these innovative clusters suggest that knowledge spillover between firms of different industries occurred frequently and increased the innovative output of the firms involved.
Jochen Streb, Nicole Waidlein
Chapter 13. Cluster Policy: A Guide to the State of the Debate
Abstract
Although there is increasing consensus that the presence of clusters enhances economic outcomes, there is little consensus on whether there is a case for policy intervention. If cluster policy is understood as government efforts to create agglomeration artificially, the existing research finds clear reasons to be pessimistic about the ultimate welfare implications of such interventions. But if cluster policy describes government efforts to use existing agglomerations to deliver economic policies or upgrade a region’s competitiveness more effectively, the outlook is much more positive. The evidence on cluster policies actually implemented provides examples of both types, but the large majority falls into the second category. Remaining challenges have more to do with scaling up the impact of cluster efforts, dealing with emerging clusters, and adopting cluster policy to conditions in developing economies.
Christian Ketels
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Knowledge and the Economy
Editors
Peter Meusburger
Johannes Glückler
Martina el Meskioui
Copyright Year
2013
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-94-007-6131-5
Print ISBN
978-94-007-6130-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6131-5