Dieter F. Kogler

Stylized Facts in the Geography of Innovation

The geography of innovation describes the importance of proximity and location to innovative activity. As part of what has been termed the new economic geography, this area of research is less than 20years old, and is now developed sufficiently so that the discussion can be organized around certain stylized and commonly accepted facts:•Innovation is spatially concentrated.•Geography provides a platform to organize economic activity.•All places are not equal: urbanization, localization, and diversity.•Knowledge spillovers are geographically localized.•Knowledge spillovers are nuanced, subtle, pervasive, and not easily amenable to measurement.•Local universities are necessary but not sufficient for innovation.•Innovation benefits from local buzz and global pipelines.•Places are defined over time by an evolutionary process.

Mapping Knowledge Space and Technological Relatedness in US Cities

The accumulation of knowledge is a key driver of technological change and economic growth. Significant attention has been directed to the processes of knowledge production in a spatial context, but little attention has been given to the type of knowledge produced within specific places. The objectives of the present study are to map the US technology/knowledge space, to examine the evolution of that space over the time period 1975–2005, and to investigate the character of knowledge cores within US cities. The knowledge space is based on the proximity of technology classes, utilizing measures derived from co-classification information contained in patent documents. Results show that over time, patents increasingly cluster within technology classes that are located close to one another in technology space. They also reveal considerable heterogeneity in measures of technological specialization across US metropolitan areas. In general, smaller cities tend to display higher levels of knowledge relatedness, often because invention is controlled by a small number of firms with a limited range of technological know-how. Larger cities generate knowledge that is more broadly dispersed across the US knowledge space. Some cities maintain their technological coherence over time, the technological trajectories of others fracture and dissipate, while yet in other cities new technology cores emerge and develop. Higher levels of technological relatedness (specialization) in cities are linked to faster rates of knowledge production and to distinctive trajectories of knowledge evolution.

Editorial: Evolutionary Economic Geography – Theoretical and Empirical Progress

Economic geographers increasingly consider the significance of history in shaping the contemporary socio-economic landscape. Inspired by evolutionary economics (NELSON and WINTER, 1982), it is acknowledged that we have now arrived at a new stage in economic geography, i.e. the ‘evolutionary turn’ (GRABHER, 2009). Simply put, it is believed that experiences and competencies acquired over time by individuals and entities in particular localities to a large degree determine present configurations as well as future regional trajectories. In order to trace, understand and investigate the pathways from past to present, economic geographers have sought insights from a number of closely related fields, including regional science, the geography of innovation approach (FELDMAN and KOGLER, 2010), other disciplines such as heterodox economics, and to some extent also the natural sciences (BOSCHMA and MARTIN, 2010a). The results of these efforts have given rise to a thriving and exciting sub-field within the larger discipline, entitled evolutionary economic geography (EEG). The common point of departure in EEG is the concept of ‘creative destruction’, and along with it the principal idea that the capitalist economy is in constant flux, evolving through ‘constant changes that transform the economic structure from within’ (SCHUMPETER, 1942, p. 82). The notion of creative destruction describes the ongoing process whereby firms strive to achieve market power through innovation, which essentially means producing better goods than their competitors. While this appears a rational argument, what is less understood are the non-equilibrium processes that transform the economy from within (WITT, 2003). SCHUMPETER (1934, p. 64) conceptualized the phenomenon of innovation and the processes inherent to it as ‘spontaneous and discontinuous change in the channels of the flow, disturbance of equilibrium, which forever alters and displaces the equilibrium state previously existing’. Essentially, embedded in the socio-economic realities and imaginations that drive the continuous search for novelty and competitive advantage, technological change arises endogenously from within the system, and through transformative and adaptive mechanisms shapes the evolution of the space economy. The consequence is that the economic landscape is in constant unrest, pushed and pulled by processes of competition that both trap capital, labour and routines within some sectors and regions while at the same time encouraging experimentation and discovery in others, resulting in an uneven geography of knowledge production and innovation. Thus, technological change also has a decidedly geographic dimension that affects regional economic growth and prosperity (ASHEIM and GERTLER, 2005). Evolutionary research approaches frequently focus on history as an explanation for the persistent patterns of uneven regional development. It is understood that the spatial distribution of economic activity is an outcome of largely connected and path-dependent historical processes (DOSI and NELSON, 2010). Indeed, long-term investigations into the patterns of technological change confirm that local technology trajectories are for the most part rigid and path dependent, and without constant reinvention tend to enter a state of technological lock-in, followed by economic decline that is difficult for a locality to escape. Nevertheless, historic accounts also point to islands of innovation at certain times, which indicates that there are windows of opportunities for places and regions to elevate their knowledge production and innovativeness under particular circumstances (SCOTT and STORPER, 2003). Empirical accounts that take a dynamic approach are insightful in this regard, but it is studies that draw on key theories in evolutionary economics and EEG (BOSCHMA and FRENKEN, 2006; FRENKEN and BOSCHMA, 2007; BOSCHMA and MARTIN, 2010a) that really provide the potential to disentangle further the complexity of technological change in the economic landscape (MARTIN and SUNLEY, 2007). EEG offers a broad, though still evolving, framework that has at its core the production and destruction of novelty in space and the links between novelty and regional economic fortunes (BOSCHMA and MARTIN, 2010b). The creation of technological knowledge, its movement and recombination within different regional ensembles of economic agents and institutions plays a Regional Studies, 2015

Beyond territory: Dynamic geographies of knowledge creation, diffusion, and innovation

Introduction 1. Territorial and Relational Dynamics in Knowledge Creation Diffusion and Innovation: An Introduction Harald Bathelt, Maryann P. Feldman and Dieter F. Kogler Part 1: Agglomeration - Aspects of Specialization and Diversity 2. Where do They Come From, and to Whom do they Flow? W. Mark Brown and David L. Rigby 3. Local Diversity and Creative Economic Activity in Canadian City-Regions Greg Spencer 4. Technological Relatedness and Regional Branching Ron Boschma and Koen Frenken 5. Evolution of the Geographical Concentration Pattern of the Danish IT Sector Christian R. Ostergaard and Bent Dalum Part 2: Beyond Territory - Evoutionary Spatio-Sectoral Dynamics 6. The Emerging Industry Puzzle: Optics Unplugged Maryann P. Feldman and Iryna Lendel 7. Food Geography and the Organic Empire Modern Quests for Cultural-Creative Related Theory Phil Cooke 8. Beyond Spillovers - Interrogating Innovation and Creativity in the Peripheries Andrey N. Petrov 9. The BioValley - Knowledge Dyanmics in a TNC headquarter location Bernhard Fuhrer and Paul Messerli Part 3: Making Connections - Bridging the Local and the Global 10. Islands of Expertise - Global Knowledge Transfer in a Technology Service Firm Johannes Gluckler 11. The Changing and Diverse Roles of RIS in the Globalizing Knowledge Economy: A Theoretical Re-Examination with Illustrations from the Nordic Countries Bjorn Asheim, Arne Isaksen, Jerker Moodysson, Markku Sotarauta 12. Globaal Buzz at International Trade Fairs: A Relational Perspective Nina Schuldt and Harald Bathelt 13. Dyanic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation: Present and Future Diections Dieter F. Kogler, Harald Bathelt and Maryann P. Feldman

Global reversal, regional revival?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Regional Studies on 19 January 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00343404.2016.1255720.

rKnowledge: The Spatial Diffusion and Adoption of rDNA Methods

Feldman M. P., Kogler D. F. and Rigby D. L. rKnowledge: the spatial diffusion and adoption of rDNA methods, Regional Studies. The 1980 patent granted to Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer for their development of rDNA technology played a critical role in the establishment of the modern biotechnology industry. From the birth of this general-purpose technology in the San Francisco Bay area, rDNA-related knowledge diffused across sectors and regions of the US economy. Patent data are used here to track the geography and timing of rDNA technology adoption in US metropolitan areas. Using event history and fixed effects conditional logit models, it is shown how the diffusion of rDNA techniques was influenced by cognitive, geographical and social proximity.

On the Relationship between Innovation and Wage Inequality: New Evidence from Canadian Cities

abstract In this article, we examine the link between innovation and earnings inequality across Canadian cities over the 1996–2006 period. We do so using a novel data set that combines information from the Canadian long-form census and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The analysis reveals that there is a positive relationship between innovation and inequality: cities with higher levels of innovation have more unequal distributions of earnings. Other factors influencing differences in inequality include city size, manufacturing and government employment, the percentage of visible minority in an urban population, and educational inequality. These results are robust to the use of different measures of inequality, innovation, alternative specifications, and instrumental variables estimations. Questions are thus raised about how the benefits of innovation are distributed in society and the long-term sustainability of such trends.

Global and Regional Dynamics in Knowledge Flows and Innovation Networks

Knowledge, learning and innovation are key elements in theories concerning economic development and growth. Since Schumpeter (1942) it has been recognized that the displacement of old goods or tech...

Territorial and relational dynamics in knowledge creation and innovation: An introduction

Introduction 1. Territorial and Relational Dynamics in Knowledge Creation Diffusion and Innovation: An Introduction Harald Bathelt, Maryann P. Feldman and Dieter F. Kogler Part 1: Agglomeration - Aspects of Specialization and Diversity 2. Where do They Come From, and to Whom do they Flow? W. Mark Brown and David L. Rigby 3. Local Diversity and Creative Economic Activity in Canadian City-Regions Greg Spencer 4. Technological Relatedness and Regional Branching Ron Boschma and Koen Frenken 5. Evolution of the Geographical Concentration Pattern of the Danish IT Sector Christian R. Ostergaard and Bent Dalum Part 2: Beyond Territory - Evoutionary Spatio-Sectoral Dynamics 6. The Emerging Industry Puzzle: Optics Unplugged Maryann P. Feldman and Iryna Lendel 7. Food Geography and the Organic Empire Modern Quests for Cultural-Creative Related Theory Phil Cooke 8. Beyond Spillovers - Interrogating Innovation and Creativity in the Peripheries Andrey N. Petrov 9. The BioValley - Knowledge Dyanmics in a TNC headquarter location Bernhard Fuhrer and Paul Messerli Part 3: Making Connections - Bridging the Local and the Global 10. Islands of Expertise - Global Knowledge Transfer in a Technology Service Firm Johannes Gluckler 11. The Changing and Diverse Roles of RIS in the Globalizing Knowledge Economy: A Theoretical Re-Examination with Illustrations from the Nordic Countries Bjorn Asheim, Arne Isaksen, Jerker Moodysson, Markku Sotarauta 12. Globaal Buzz at International Trade Fairs: A Relational Perspective Nina Schuldt and Harald Bathelt 13. Dyanic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation: Present and Future Diections Dieter F. Kogler, Harald Bathelt and Maryann P. Feldman

Social Foundations of Regional Innovation and the Role of University Spin-Offs: The Case of Canada's Technology Triangle

The goal of this paper is to explore the social foundations of regional innovation by analyzing the role of universities in promoting technology transfer and the creation of innovation networks. The argument put forward is that regional innovation benefits from, and is stimulated by, horizontal and vertical knowledge flows and trans-regional networks, enabling firms to benefit from wider knowledge transfers between old and new establishments, large and small operations, and within and across sectors. The empirical study focuses on the Kitchener and Guelph metropolitan areas, referred to as Canadas Technology Triangle (CTT), where a larger number of firms related to information technology (IT) have been successfully launched since the 1970s in the area surrounding the University of Waterloo. This research investigates to what degree these university spin-offs and start-ups have established regional networks in innovation, their level of dependence on global knowledge networks, and whether this dynamic has produced spillovers to other regional industries.