The new geography of innovation: clusters, competitiveness and theory

Abstract

It is now well established that innovation is the main engine of competitiveness and economic growth. However, in this modern fast-paced world, the inherent nature of the innovation process has changed. On the one hand, the rapid technological revolution or the emergence of new countries on the international economic stage has underlined a shift towards a globalization of the economy. On the other hand, another trend towards a spatial concentration of economic and innovative activity has been identified. Despite the widening of the geographical options offered by globalization, production and innovation still appear particularly concentrated in specific locations and clusters are the ultimate representation of this regionalization stream. "The New Geography of Innovation" assesses both the theoretically and empirically intertwined - but surprisingly still relatively unexplored - relationship between innovation, clusters and multinational enterprises in today's economy. Based on a unique database of patent applications at the European Patent Office, this book not only emphasizes the marked discrepancies in terms of inventive performance between Swiss regions but also identifies the country's main inventive clusters, offers new insights on the internationalization of the innovation process and provides exclusive evidence of the importance of foreign clusters as a source of new knowledge