It is a general understanding that the advanced economies are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation into knowledge-based societies. There is a firm belief that this is based on the development of high-tech industries. Correspondingly, in this scenario low-tech sectors appear to be...

Ever since the innovation systems (IS) concept was coined in the late 1980s, it has been accepted as a mechanism of economic and technological development in policy circles. This recognition follows a change in our understanding of the characteristics of the innovation process as a non-linear...

This important book is about the origins and diffusion of innovation, in theory and in practice. The practice draws on a variety of industries, from electronics to eyewear, from furniture to mechatronics, in a range of economies including Europe, the USA and China.

The aim of this chapter is to explore some of the issues and to underline the main aspects that have been focussed upon in the PILOT project. We begin the chapter with consideration of why so much academic and policy attention has been paid, in our view disproportionately, to high-tech...

It is often argued that high tech industries drive growth processes, and that they are the sources of growth in output, employment and productivity in the knowledge economy. This is a special case of a more general argument that economic growth is characterized by the creation of new and the...

Europe is confronted by an intimidating triple challenge - economic stagnation, climate change, and a governance crisis. This paper demonstrates how the three challenges are closely inter-related, and discusses how they can be dealt with more effectively in order to arrive at a more economically...

The regional Special Commission for Decontamination of Chile's capital, Santiago, was formed in 1990. The issue of regulating passenger car emissions was one of the first initiatives on the commission's agenda, empowering a group of consultants and administrators to set up a structure for the...

During the 1980s and 1990s Finland and Sweden were on the international frontier in telecommunications, pioneering the first-generation cellular system and leading in the development of the second generation. This strength in telecommunications has developed under various regulatory regimes in a...