This paper has three aims. Firstly, to provide a critical review of previous conceptualizations of the knowledge base approach in the research fields of innovation studies and economic geography. Secondly, to propose a broadened interpretation of the knowledge base approach which allows for...

It is widely accepted that firms in peripheral regions benefit to a lesser extent from local knowledge spillovers than firms located in agglomerations or industrial clusters. This paper investigates the extent to which innovative firms in peripheral regions compensate for the lack of access to...

Using Norwegian Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data linked to public employment registers covering the years 2004 - 2010, this paper investigates the relationship between employment growth prior to the event of innovation, innovation output, and growth performance after the event. Positive...

This paper explores how the innovation strategies of firms reflect the density, diversity and connectivity of their urban locations. Firms located outside the four large-city regions of Norway are generally more committed to development work than are their urban counterparts. Still, once...

The proximity concept refers to types of inter-organizational relationships that are expected to facilitate interactive learning and collaborative innovation. Different forms of proximity include geographical, cognitive, social, institutional and organizational proximity. Following an extensive...

Smart specialisation as a strategic approach for an innovation-driven regional development policy is extremely important in the European policy context and a precondition for accessing significant amounts of funding. In this paper, we pursue two aims: First, we clarify what smart specialisation...

This paper draws on observations from a long-established network in France, located around the town of Cognac – site of distilled beverages with the same name. Firms within this network have been successful in developing new types of products in the past decades, drawing on and diverging from...

In this paper we describe a richer framework characterizing the trade-off between exploration and exploitation with respect firm performance. We devise a model that complements the notion of organizational learning as a process of inferential learning from the past with an explicit incorporation...

We estimate the respective importance of spatial sorting and agglomeration economies in explaining the urban wage premium for workers with different sets of skills. Sorting is the main source of the wage premium. Agglomeration economies are in general small, but are larger for workers with...

We analyze the frequency and nature by which new firms are acquired by established businesses. Acquisitions are often considered to reflect a technology transfer process and to also constitute one way in which a “symbiosis” between new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and established...