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Distant search has evolved from the open innovation literature as an efficient mechanism to access external knowledge from heterogeneous fields of expertise. Despite its popularity and proven benefits, companies face multiple barriers to benefitting from distant search. In this study, we explore a local open innovation approach in which the spatial distance between solution-seeking firms and problem solvers was deliberately reduced to combine the benefits of distant search with those of spatial proximity. We studied eight local open innovation events and found that spatial proximity supports the implementation of open innovation, overcoming challenges of initiating organisational change towards openness, establishing trusting relationships for knowledge exchange, and successfully applying the external knowledge. By identifying social capital as the key success factor in local open innovation, our study contributes to the theoretical foundations of open innovation by showing how the dimensions of social capital enable key actions in each process phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic geographers have recently made important contributions to understanding of the relationship between regional transformation, industrial specialisation and innovation networks in the emergence of new industries. However, most contemporary research has focused on the influence of networks on regional trajectories, paying lip service to how regional trajectories also influence network configurations. Furthermore, international comparative research on how specific regional innovation system (RIS) trajectories may shape innovation networks in new industrial sectors is underdeveloped. The paper investigates how the trajectories of Bangalore and Beijing RISs influence the objectives and geographical configuration of innovation networks in the new media industry. The co-evolution of different elements of the RIS trajectory points to the unfolding of a politically and institutionally driven trajectory in Beijing, and a cognitively driven trajectory in Bangalore. These trajectories lead to specific barriers and opportunities for the development of innovation networks in new industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyse and compare the patent collaboration networks of Spain and Sweden during the Second Industrial Revolution, a key period for technological and industrial development in several economies and the distinct development paths taken by these two countries. The data used are from two new historical patent datasets for Spain and Sweden for the period 1878–1914. To study the structure of collaboration networks in both countries, we applied social network analysis methods and focused on two specific key network properties: connectivity and openness to external nodes. The results demonstrate that collaboration networks were better connected and more open to foreign influence in Sweden than in Spain. This research opens new paths for further multidisciplinary studies both on the evolution of industrial economies and on innovation networks dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although policy makers subsidize firms' R&D projects to increase innovational output in an industry, region, or country, it remains unclear whether such subsidization triggers additional R&D efforts or crowds out private investments. To address this question, we assess the effectiveness of subsidization for individual and collaborative research in the German biotech industry while also examining the relevance of network embeddedness for patent output. Our results indicate that subsidies do lead to increased patent output, with additional benefits from involvement in more than one project. However, the amount of money is only significant under certain circumstances. Also, it is higher degree centrality in the firm network that significantly increases R&D success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the geography of innovation networks and analyses combinatorial knowledge dynamics from a single cluster perspective. Addressing firms in the media cluster in Bergen, Norway, we examine how and from where companies acquire and combine different types of knowledge for their innovation activities. The empirical analysis, which is based on structured interviews with 22 media companies, identifies two main types of cluster firms: media content providers that rely heavily on symbolic knowledge and media technology providers that draw mostly on synthetic knowledge. Even though they draw on different knowledge bases, the two types of firms are strongly interlinked in their innovation activities and source knowledge from each other. Furthermore, we find that synthetic firms constitute a gateway to the regional R&D system and that the region acts as key arena for the combination of dissimilar knowledge bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While classical economic theories of growth emphasised international capital accumulation, and finance-based theories of foreign investment stressed international interest rate differentials and risk reduction, the technological accumulation approach examines international knowledge building by multinational enterprises and their international business (IB) networks. The two processes of innovation and internationalisation have become ever more interconnected as central drivers of development since the first industrial revolution, through to today’s information age. The increasing significance of the knowledge-seeking motive for IB networks and of competence-creating subsidiary activities at a local level have linked localised innovation systems to IB and to international knowledge exchange. From a locational perspective, international knowledge connectivity has become critical for sustained innovation and growth. The shift of techno-socio-economic paradigm in the information age is associated with a shift in the character of IB and innovation, with critical implications for IB theory and concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the factors influencing an academic's propensity to patent and the quality of patenting in nanotechnology and biotechnology. We found that a university researcher is more likely to be listed as an inventor of a patented innovation, regardless of the assignee, if he receives private funding, has a fairly high level of cliquishness in the scientific network and has shown a prior capacity to successfully collaborate with industry, a concept that we named innovation loops. Furthermore, citation rate and number of claims, which are used to represent patent quality, are influenced by factors similar to those explaining patent quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, industrial collective research (ICR) provides a unique framework for research collaborations: an industry-supported network of firms and research institutes conducts research for firms in low- and medium-technology branches. The research projects are mainly financed by a publicly funded program. Based on two surveys, one for research institutes and one addressing firm representatives, we analyze for the first time the institutional features and interactions in ICR. We ask how business firms are involved in network activities and how they benefit from the knowledge created. The results from research in ICR are usually relevant for several firms (e.g. results related to new norms and standards). The network also provides a framework for research on high-tech applications by enabling collaboration across different sectors and technology fields. ICR has proven rather successful in achieving the balancing act between aims of the network and diverging interests of the actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent agenda‐setting exercises in the national innovation systems and industrial dynamics literatures have highlighted the unresolved methodological challenges faced by those seeking to explore the innovation process in a co‐evolutionary perspective. The paper seeks to contribute to this debate by drawing upon the research methods and presentational conventions of business historians. The empirical study concerns the emergence of radical innovations in the design and manufacture of sailing dinghies in mid‐20th‐century Britain. This period saw the displacement of small, highly localized firms engaged in traditional craft practices by a new generation of designers, manufacturers and promoters in pursuit of volume production. The findings are presented in the form of a historical narrative, contrasting the configurations and dynamics of two competing innovation networks in this sector. It shows how actors in each network drew differently on newly available platform technologies, probes their distinctive approaches to design, manufacturing and marketing, and assesses their longer‐term impact on the sector. The concluding section relates the findings to the previously discussed theoretical constructs and reflects on the potential contribution of historically informed methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]