This paper explores the role of distant knowledge links and policy actions for the development of biotechnology clusters. It seeks to challenge the prevailing view that the birth and early development of high technology industries are always spontaneous phenomena which are mainly based on local...

Over the past 20 years, the innovation system approach has significantly enhanced our understanding of the innovation process, stressing its non-linear, systemic, interactive and evolutionary character. The notion of regional innovation systems (RISs) highlights the regional dimension of new...

This paper deals with innovation activities and the pattern of knowledge linkages in the food industry located in the metropolitan region of Vienna. Drawing on 20 qualitative interviews with local companies and knowledge providers (universities and other research organisations) it is shown that...

There is a broad and growing literature on the changing role of universities in regional development. What is still missing, however, is a precise understanding of the “third function†of universities in regions. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a nuanced view of the role of...

Many cluster studies have focused on growth regions and industries covering only the early phases of cluster development. Little attention, however, has been paid to the renewal of clusters in old industrial regions. The aim of the paper is to address the question of how clusters renew...