Luís Carvalho

Knowledge spaces and places: From the perspective of a “born-global” start-up in the field of urban technology

Abstract The success of cities increasingly relies on its capacity to capitalize on its knowledge base, but also on its potential to anchor external knowledge and the strategies of knowledge-based firms. In this paper we analyze how a “born global” start-up firm is linked to different types of places, and how it explores and exploits different territorial innovation potentials. Our case company—i.e., Living PlanIT—develops, tests and sells smart city software to processes real-time information collected through sensors embedded in a city’s buildings and infrastructure towards energy savings and manifold efficiency gains. The paper illustrates how the interaction with different places and knowledge-based cities provides unique resources for the technology development, search, experimentation, market formation and societal legitimation. Beyond focusing on a place’s fixed knowledge assets, the paper empirically assesses the innovation functions of different types of knowledge-cities and temporary “non-places” such as international high-level events.

Developing the PlanIT Valley: a view on the governance and societal embedding of u-eco city pilots

During the last decade, a small number of large-scale city pilots emerged in order to explore and test new urban solutions, namely based on ubiquitous computing and blended with ecological notions (u-eco city pilots). Inspired by recent literatures on urban development and social studies of innovation, we argue that a more encompassing planning framework for such ‘new cities’ should go beyond framing their technological challenges, embracing societal dimensions which ultimately may affect the technological development of the pilot in itself – governance and societal embedding. We illustrate these ideas with the case of the PlanIT Valley, a private-driven u-eco city pilot under development in the north of Portugal. Despite its still embryonic stage, first evidence suggests that these two dimensions pose relevant challenges to the pilot’s development, namely related with resource access, license to operate and the development of a socially-rich innovation ecosystem.

Multinational Knowledge Strategies, Policy and the Upgrading Process of Regions: Revisiting the Automotive Industry in Ostrava and Shanghai

This paper revisits how and why new multinational knowledge-based strategies and multi-level governmental policies influence the upgrading process of regions in developing economies. Automotive multinationals traditionally exploited local asset conditions, but it is shown that they have also been contributing to knowledge-generation systems via investments in R&D centres and cooperation with regional knowledge producers. We discern three elements of the upgrading process of regions—upgrading of domestic firms, subsidiary evolution and establishment of strategic relations with local knowledge institutes—to analyse two case studies: Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Shanghai (China). The cases show that all types of upgrading—product, process, chain and functional—have taken place in the last years, and that follow sourcing may have a positive impact on regional upgrading. These observations provide lessons for governments in developing economies which aim to strengthen innovation-based regional development.

Urbanize or Perish? Assessing the Urbanization of Knowledge Locations in Europe

Abstract This paper explores the drivers behind a recent “urban turn” of planned knowledge locations in Europe. While acknowledging a general tendency towards more urbanity, we argue that a dense and diverse urban environment is not equally relevant for all types of knowledge-based activities because of nuanced workers’ preferences and innovation modes. Based on a theory “considering different types of knowledge bases”, we suggest that activities that more intensively rely on symbolic knowledge (e.g., media, design) tend to have a stronger preference for urban settings, while this is less the case for activities based on analytical and synthetic knowledge (e.g., biotechnology and advanced engineering). We illustrate our thesis by three case studies: Kista Science Park in Stockholm, The Digital Hub in Dublin, and Biocant in Coimbra.

Four challenges for a new science and technology park: AvePark in Guimarães, Portugal

Science and technology parks are investments primarily focused on achieving economic and innovation outcomes, but may also serve urban and perception change objectives. Inaugurated in the autumn of 2008, the new science and technology park in Guimarães – AvePark – carries opportunities for regional economic diversification, but brings challenges calling for innovative and integrated policymaking, multi-layered regional governance and proactive management. Will AvePark primarily become an academic centre of excellence and a real estate venture, or will it steer broader regional objectives of economic diversification and image change?

Merit and Student Selection

In Europe, participation in higher education has increased remarkably, from around 1% of the population in 1910 (Ringer, 2004), to approximately 60% in 2007 (UNESCO, 2009). To accommodate the increasing costs of expansion, governments favoured managerial and funding practices stressing market principles, efficiency and competition.

Challenges Ahead: Understanding, Assessing, Anticipating and Governing Foreseeable Societal Tensions to Support Accelerated Low-Carbon Transitions in Europe

Addressing global climate change calls for rapid, large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies (RETs). Such an accelerated diffusion constitutes a new phenomenon, which challenges existing analytical approaches. The implied fundamental reconfiguration of energy systems will inevitably involve adjoining shifts in the structure of energy markets, the socio-cultural significance of energy and related rules and institutions—producing new societal tensions that are largely understudied. This chapter draws on insights from socio-technical, social-ecological and techno-economic systems studies to better understand, assess and support the exploration of low-carbon futures. We sketch out an agenda that encompasses four major tasks for governing the energy transition: i) a richer understanding of the dynamics of socio-technical and social-ecological systems; ii) multidimensional assessments of prospective environmental, social and economic impacts of these transformations; iii) methods that enable actors to anticipate future impacts in their everyday innovation and decision practices; and iv) elaborate new governance arrangements to tackle the upcoming transformations.

Beyond the joint-venture: knowledge sourcing in Chinese automotive events

Abstract This article analyses how firms use events and trade fairs for external knowledge sourcing, which barriers emerge and how event organisers strategically mediate and influence those processes. The research setting focuses on two major automotive events in Shanghai, highlighting that knowledge sourcing in these events do complement other types of knowledge accessed in permanent ‘sites’ and organisational configurations, such as in clusters and through joint-ventures. Firms use automotive events to access buzz, to monitor other firms and to explore options for new collaborations. Yet, it is also argued that a focus on existing relations, the defensive strategies deployed by lead firms and the intrinsic complexity of exhibited technologies hinder the process of knowledge sourcing that is influenced by event organisers’ content, matchmaking and access policies.

Making waves: the valuation of innovations in San Sebastian’s surf economy

ABSTRACT This study takes a valuation perspective to study how and where products and innovations are gaining ‘economic significance’ in the contemporary economy. Building on a recent research stream in economic geography and urban and regional studies, it highlights that the economic value of many products is not formed within production systems alone, but relies on co-constructed connections between production and consumption systems, playing out across multiple geographies. It distinguishes between three types of economic valuation pathways – namely technical, experiential and identity-based – which although analytically distinct may actually build and reinforce one another. This approach is empirically illustrated with the case of the surf-related economy in the city of San Sebastian (Basque Country, Spain), which is used to make a broader point about the growing relevance of a valuation approach to understand competitive advantage and economic renewal in localized production systems.

Living PlanIT and the development of the "PlanIT Urban Operating SystemTM": the geographies of an innovation

This case study explores the development of the PlanIT Urban Operating SystemTM, a complex middleware platform designed to link a city’s sub-systems (for example the built environment, safety and security, energy, water), harmonizing resource flows towards manifold efficiency gains. This chapter explores the spatial and organizational context of the proponent company, Living PlanIT SA, currently headquartered in Switzerland but with relevant operations in other milieus, namely in the north of Portugal. Despite the codification of the core technology, the chapter illustrates how the interaction with different milieus provided (and keeps providing) unique resources for the technology’s development, commercialization and societal legitimation.