Technological change at the regional level: the role of location, firm structure, and strategy
Abstract
Because of the increasing globalisation of the economy and reinforced competition, technological change has become an important factor in the restructuring process and in the competitive position of firms and regions. In this paper the author investigates to what extent the innovation process is differentiated across space and in particular how this process is shaped by the locational conditions as well as by the structures and strategies of firms in selected regions. To develop a framework for the analysis, contrasting views about the innovation process at the regional level are presented. In the traditional linear innovation model (product-cycle theory and innovation diffusion) relevant locational factors are stressed and an hierarchical pattern of innovation in space is arrived at. More recent approaches such as the evolutionary and network theories point to the relevance of historically evolved firm structures and strategies. The analysis of the Austrian case demonstrates that each of these models has a certain relevance. There was a pronounced differentiation of innovation across space, which was partly in line with the hierarchical model, such as a concentration of R&D and product innovation in the largest agglomerations. However, strong innovation activities, corresponding more with the evolutionary model, were in addition identified in newly industrialised or even in some of the peripheral rural areas. Structural and behavioural features of the firms, such as organisational characteristics (status, functions, and skills), the strategic orientation as well as network links, in addition to locational factors, were relevant for these patterns.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Pion Ltd, London in its journal Environment and Planning A.
Volume (Year): 24 (1992)
Issue (Month): 11 (November)
Pages: 1565-1584
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.pion.co.uk
Related research
Keywords:References
No references listed on IDEASYou can help add them by filling out this form.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Franz Tödtling & Michaela Trippl, 2009. "Innovation and Knowledge Links in Metropolitan Regions - The Case of Vienna," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2009_02, Institute for the Environment and Regional Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pio:envira:v:24:y:1992:i:11:p:1565-1584For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Neil Hammond).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

