https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7649-0419
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ABSTRACT
Due to the greater involvement of users and the co-creation of ideas with suppliers or other firms, innovation processes are increasingly based upon combinatorial knowledge. Thus, innovation is not restricted to research-and-development-driven, science-based knowledge, but is also the result of experiences and creative thinking. This has consequences for regional innovation policies because each knowledge type differs regarding policy requirements. Contributing to the under-researched topic of the barriers of combinatorial knowledge dynamics in practice, the aim of this paper was to guide government policies in transferring theoretical insights into a contemporary, place-based policy approach. In accordance with the knowledge base approach this paper clearly distinguishes between analytical knowledge, synthetic knowledge and symbolic knowledge. The analysis consists of in-depth interviews, conducted in two case-study regions in Germany. This paper deduces several local factors that have hampered combinatorial knowledge dynamics, and identifies obstacles that can only be overcome at the federal state or national levels.
Acknowledgements
Our special thanks go to the research team InDUI, as well as the interviewees, for spending their valuable time sharing their deeply interesting insights. Furthermore, we would like to thank all our other colleagues at the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. The quantitative data that support the findings of this study are available from the Federal Employment Agency in Germany. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. The qualitative data are not publicly available due to restrictions. They contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Rolf Sternberg http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7649-0419
Notes
1 For further information about the matching of occupation groups and knowledge bases see online appendix.
2 ‘New Work’ describes the change in labour structure, the importance of the work/life balance and the power structure (e.g. https://www.corporate-alchemists.com/new-work-what-does-it-mean/).