The Geography Of Small Firm Innovation

It has long been recognized that advances in science contribute to economic growth. While it is one thing to argue that such a relationship exists, it is quite another to establish the extent to which knowledge spills over within and between sectors of the economy. Such a research agenda faces numerous challenges. Not only must one seek measures of inputs, but a measure of output is needed as well to estimate the knowledge production function. The identification of such a measure was a compelling goal for Zvi Griliches, if not the holy grail: “The dream of getting hold of an output indicator of inventive activity is one of the strong motivating forces for economic research in this area.” (Griliches 1990, p. 1669). Jaffe (1989) made a significant contribution to estimating the knowledge production function when he established a relationship between patent activity and R&D activity at the state level. Feldman and coauthors (1994a, 1994b) added considerably to this line of research, focusing on innovation counts as the dependent variable instead of patent counts. This work was particularly important given that many innovations are never patented. Feldman’s work also differentiated by firm size and showed that knowledge spillovers from universities play a key role as sources of knowledge for small firms.

This volume provides a collection of theoretical articles and empirical studies on innovation and location by focusing on the institutions and systems that mediate knowledge spillovers. The objective is to provide an international comparison using a variety of approaches. The volume is organized around the three themes. The first focuses on theoretical work that attempts to advance our understanding of knowledge externalities and systems on innovation. The second section provides empirical studies that attempt to measure these impacts. The final section considers future challenges to regional economic development policy in the face of economic integration and globalization.

This book offers a geographic dimension to the study of innovation and product commercialization. Building on the literature in economics and geography, this book demonstrates that product innovation clusters spatially in regions which provide concentrations of the knowledge needed for the commercialization process. The book develops a conceptual model which links the location of new product innovations to the sources of these knowledge inputs. The geographic concentration of this knowledge fonns a technological infrastructure which promotes infonnation transfers, and lowers the risks and the costs of engaging in innovative activity. Empirical estimation confinns that the location of product innovation is related to the underlying technological infrastructure, and that the location of the knowledge inputs are mutually reinforcing in defining a region's competitive advantage. The book concludes by considering the policy implications of these fmdings for both private finns and state governments. This work is intended for academics, policy practitioners and students in the fields of innovation and technological change, geography and regional science, and economic development. This work is part of a larger research effort to understand why the location of innovative activity varies spatially, specifically the externalities and increasing returns which accrue to location. xi Acknowledgements This work has benefitted greatly from discussions with friends and colleagues. I wish to specifically note the contribution of Mark Kamlet, Wes Cohen, Richard Florida, Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch. I would like to thank Gail Cohen Shaivitz for her dedication in editing the final manuscript.

Utilizing a unique data set, Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch provide a rich empirical analysis of the increased importance of small firms in generating technological innovations and their growing contribution to the U.S. economy. They identify the contributions made by both small and large firms to the innovative process and the manner in which market structure, and the firm-size distribution in particular, responds to technological change. The authors' analysis relies on traditional theories of industrial organization and tests existing hypotheses, many of them previously untested due to data constraints. Innovation and Small Firms brings together two large data bases recently released by the U. S. Small Business Administration - one directly measuring innovative activity for large and small firms, the other providing a detailed census of economic activity for all manufacturing firms and plants across a broad spectrum of industries. Acs and Audretsch describe and evaluate the data bases in the context of the literature on innovation, market structure, and firm size. They present their findings on the presence of small firms, small-firm entry in manufacturing, small-firm growth and flexible technology, and mobility and firm size. They compare static and dynamic measures of small-firm viability and address the relationships between R&D, innovation, and productivity, and analyze the interaction between technological regimes and the role of government in innovation.

Developed countries must be incredibly innovative to secure incomes and welfare so that they may successfully compete against international rivals. This book focuses on two specific but interrelated aspects of innovation by incumbent firms and entrepreneurs, the role of geography and of open innovation.

Zoltan Acs explores the relationship between industrial innovation and economic growth at regional level and reaches conclusions as to why some regions grow and others decline. The book focuses on innovation and the growth of cities by the use of endogenous growth theory.

This book offers a geographic dimension to the study of innovation and product commercialization. Building on the literature in economics and geography, this book demonstrates that product innovation clusters spatially in regions which provide concentrations of the knowledge needed for the commercialization process. The book develops a conceptual model which links the location of new product innovations to the sources of these knowledge inputs. The geographic concentration of this knowledge fonns a technological infrastructure which promotes infonnation transfers, and lowers the risks and the costs of engaging in innovative activity. Empirical estimation confinns that the location of product innovation is related to the underlying technological infrastructure, and that the location of the knowledge inputs are mutually reinforcing in defining a region's competitive advantage. The book concludes by considering the policy implications of these fmdings for both private finns and state governments. This work is intended for academics, policy practitioners and students in the fields of innovation and technological change, geography and regional science, and economic development. This work is part of a larger research effort to understand why the location of innovative activity varies spatially, specifically the externalities and increasing returns which accrue to location. xi Acknowledgements This work has benefitted greatly from discussions with friends and colleagues. I wish to specifically note the contribution of Mark Kamlet, Wes Cohen, Richard Florida, Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch. I would like to thank Gail Cohen Shaivitz for her dedication in editing the final manuscript.

This path-breaking Handbook analyses the foundations, social desirability, institutions and geography of innovation and entrepreneurship. Leading researchers use their outstanding expertise to investigate various aspects in the context of innovation and entrepreneurship such as growth, knowledge production and spillovers, technology transfer, the organization of the firm, industrial policy, financing, small firms and start-ups, and entrepreneurship education as well as the characteristics of the entrepreneur. There is much in this Handbook that will prove to be informative and stimulating, especially for academics and post-graduate students in economics and management. Those starting a PhD in innovation or entrepreneurship will find this book essential reading.