Editorial: Regions as Knowledge and Innovative Hubs

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Notes

Yet, as demonstrated in a detailed comparative study of eight high-technology regional agglomerations in the United States, the impact of ‘knowledge organizations’ (such as universities and research centres) on the development of innovating firms depends crucially on the ‘alignment’ between the research competence fields of these organizations and the industrial specializations of the firms, even if they are located in the same area (Paytas et al., 2004). In line with this idea, the concept of ‘regional industrial identity’ proposed by Romanelli and Khessina (2005) highlights the importance of the way the internal or external actors of the cluster (platform) build on specific representations of the capacity of a region to promote the development of certain activities, and on the way these representations can influence the actors' decisions about the nature and localization of their investments. For a further discussion on this topic, see Hamdouch (2010).

This is more generally the case at the global level where the most important clusters or research ‘hotspots’ in high-technology sectors are connected in ‘Global Innovation Networks’ (Ernst, 2006).

Cooke (2010) has labelled such configurations as being ‘Jacobian Clusters’ and has illustrated them in the case of ‘green innovation’ clusters in three major regions: California (USA), North–Central Jutland (Denmark) and Wales (UK).