Regional innovation systems: The integration of local 'sticky' and global 'ubiquitous' knowledge

• The paper examines how firms in three regional clusters in Norway dominated by shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and electronics industry, respectively exploit both place-specific local resources as well as external, world-class knowledge to strengthen their competitiveness. From these case-studies we make four points: (1) ideal-typical regional innovation systems, i.e., regional clusters "surrounded" by supporting local organisations, is rather uncommon in Norway; (2) external contacts, outside of the local industrial milieu, are crucial in innovation processes also in many SMEs; (3) innovation processes may nevertheless be regarded as regional phenomena in regional clusters, as regional resources and collaborative networks often have decisive significance for firms' innovation activity; and (4) regional resources include in particular place-specific, contextual knowledge of both tacit and codified nature, that, in combination, is rather geographically immobile.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

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