Pathways To High-Tech Valleys And Research Triangles: Innovative Entrepreneurship, Knowledge Transfer and Cluster Formation in Europe and the United States

by Hulsink, Willem; Dons, Hans

• ISBN13: 9781402083365
• ISBN10: 140208336X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-08-03
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

This book looks at why certain regions are successful in creating an innovative technology cluster (with chapters on Silicon Valley and the Italian Food districts) and why aspiring communities and districts seek to learn from those examples and create an internationally successful region or sector (with chapters on the Dutch Biopartner program to stimulate entrepreneurship in the life sciences, on high-tech Israel and on the Italian Slow Food Movement). In some cases internationally renowned universities and/or research laboratories inspire engineers and scientists to become entrepreneurs and take the lead in cluster development (e.g. in the chapters on Food Valley Wageningen, the Knowledge Pearl Leuven-Flanders and the Scandinavian Oresund cluster). In other cases indigenous flagship firms, collaborating with each other and outsourcing many activities to smaller companies, may act as a region's catalyst (e.g. in the chapters on Flanders Vegetable Valley, the Dutch horticultural industry and the Defence Diversification Agency in the UK). Chapters on North Carolina's Research Triangle Park and the recent initiative to stimulate innovativeness in East Netherlands show that also an active government can stimulate emerging clusters by making local resources and funds available (e.g. risk capital, high-quality infrastructure), attracting foreign firms to invest and building ties between the private sector, knowledge institutions and local authorities.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Venturing and clustering in agri-food and high-technology hot spots: an introduction	p. 1
High-tech clusters in the United States and Europe
North Carolina's Research Triangle Park: overview, history, success factors and lessons learned	p. 27
Clustering in ICT: from Route 128 to Silicon Valley, from DEC to Google, from hardware to content	p. 53
A hotbed for entrepreneurship and innovation: looking for success factors in Israel's High-Tech Clusters	p. 79
Creating the dynamic technology region: the knowledge pearl Leuven - Flanders	p. 99
The importance of innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer
Innovation and knowledge transfer in the Dutch horticultural system	p. 119
A demand-led, network-based approach to technology transfer: the experience of the UK Defence Diversification Agency	p. 139
Stimulating entrepreneurship in life sciences: the Dutch approach	p. 155
Agri-food clusters and communities in Europe
Structural changes and the role of districts in the development of the Italian food industry	p. 181
Food innovation at interfaces: experience from the Oresund region	p. 209
The emergence of slow food: social entrepreneurship, local foods, and the Piedmont gastronomy cluster	p. 225
The Flemish frozen-vegetable industry as an example of cluster analysis: Flanders Vegetable Valley	p. 247
Stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship and regional clustering in the East Netherlands
East Netherlands as an innovation region: can a triangle between valleys compensate for low critical mass?	p. 275
From 'Wageningen City of Life Sciences' to 'Food Valley'	p. 293
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.