We examine factors influencing the relative productivity of different geographic locations. Our analysis of the Canadian biotechnology industry during the 1990s reveals that inventive and uninventive locations are distinguishable within small geographic areas corresponding to roughly 7000 postal...

We examine how industrial clustering affects biotechnology firms’ innovativeness, contrasting similar firms not located in clusters or located in clusters that are or are not focused on the firm’s technological specialization. Using detailed firm level data, we find clustered firms are eight...

This study offers theory and evidence to demonstrate that the time it takes a firm to integrate external sources of information depends on the attributes of the knowledge source and firm's own internal capabilities. By assessing innovative activities by 456 dedicated U.S. biotechnology firms...

Using detailed data on Canadian biotechnology firms during the 1990s, we explore the geographic scope of knowledge spillovers and the balance spillover-seeking and expropriation-avoidance in entrants’ locations. Our findings indicate that knowledge spillovers are highly localized, with...

In markets that have forces encouraging the adoption of a dominant design, the size of a technology's installed base and the availability of complementary goods may be the most important factors determining its success or failure. This article examines the path dependent nature of technology...

Annabelle Gawer presents cutting-edge contributions from 24 top international scholars from 19 universities across Europe, the USA and Asia, from the disciplines of strategy, economics, innovation, organization studies and knowledge management. The novel insights assembled in this volume...

Some ideas have dramatically more impact than others – they may overturn existing paradigms or launch new areas of scientific inquiry. Where do such high impact ideas come from? Are some search processes significantly more likely to lead to breakthrough idea generation than others? In this...

"Observations, such as the many celebrated inventive entrepreneurs with minimal schooling, lead to the hypothesis that protracted and rigorous education can impede entrepreneurship. Systematic analysis of biographies of noted inventors and entrepreneurs appears not to support the hypothesis. We...

Plotting the performance of a technology against the money or effort invested in it most often yields an S-shaped curve: slow initial improvement, then accelerated improvement, then diminishing improvement. These S-curves can be used to gain insight into the relative payoff of investment in...

The structure of alliance networks influences their potential for knowledge creation. Dense local clustering provides information transmission capacity in the network by fostering communication and cooperation. Nonredundant connections contract the distance between firms and give the network...