The BioRegio contest and the BioProfile contest initiated by the German Federal Government have drawn much international attention as prototypes of a new kind of technology policy aiming at the exploitation of regional innovation and growth potential through clustering. There is, however, little...

This paper discusses the role of so-called national champions within the context of the EU's ambitious goal to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic region in the world by 2010. We find football to be a useful analogy in our discussion of national champions. There are...

If one cluster increases local competitiveness, can politicians, by interlinking clusters, achieve an even better effect at the state level? To answer this question, the paper analyzes the Cluster Initiative" introduced in 1999 by the Bavarian State Government. The purpose of the initiative was...

If one cluster increases local competitiveness, can politicians, by interlinking clusters, achieve an even better effect at the state level? To answer this question, the paper analyzes the Cluster Initiative introduced in 1999 by the Bavarian State Government. The purpose of the initiative was...

The paper deals with the significant impact of location on innovation activity that has been found in many empirical studies. Main elements of such an explanation are the specific problems of a division of innovative labor. Based on an outline of these issues the concept of a regional innovation...