This book presents the first multidimensional investigation of KIE in the context of low-tech industries and gives insights in paradox conditions and specific mechanisms, using the example of the German textile industry. Therefore, the author solves conceptual inconsistencies and develops an alternative framework referring to systemic concepts of sectoral innovation systems and KIE as well as to the concept of institutional entrepreneurs. As a result, the deviation of willful actors from a restricting institutional environment and sources of entrepreneurial opportunities can be investigated more comprehensively.

This book will appeal to social scientists, economists and students of innovation and entrepreneurship studies. Policy-makers and company representatives will also find much of interest in this book, with its surprising insights into a field that has b

This book examines knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) with a focus on the European textile and apparel industries. The primary purpose is to review the extant academic literature related to the European textile and apparel industries and reflect on that review empirically using a new and robust database on KIE to discover patterns between human capital and strategic entrepreneurial and innovative behavior. According to the Advancing Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Economic Growth and Social Well-being in Europe (AEGIS) project, KIE is defined as an interface between knowledge generation and diffusion and the productive system. Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurs are thus involved in mechanisms that translate knowledge into innovation, which in turn leads to economic development and growth within an industry and/or region. To date, KIE is often associated with high-tech industries such as aerospace, computer engineering, automotive or telecommunications. For this reason, few studies have been conducted that specifically examine KIE as an avenue for firm or sector growth in the textile and apparel industries. However, new studies have positioned these industries as ones in which KIE can foster growth through innovation, and where products and processes are often evaluated within a knowledge-based framework. Building on this growing literature base, this volume explores potential policies and strategies for driving innovation and growth at the firm and industry levels in Europe and other regions, including the United States.

Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship lies at the core of the structural shift necessary for the growth and development of a knowledge based economy, yet research reveals that the EU has fewer young leading innovators, and Europe’s new firms do not adequately contribute to industrial growth. This is especially true in the high R&D intensive, high-tech sectors. This structural malaise, undermining Europe’s growth potential, is well diagnosed, but poorly understood. This volume fills this important gap by exploring new firms that have significant knowledge intensity in their activity and develop and exploit innovative opportunities in diverse sectors. Through an evolutionary and systemic approach to entrepreneurship, focusing on knowledge intensive entrepreneurship as both a micro and a macro phenomena and analyzing firms in the context of various socio-economic models, the authors explore firms creation and origins around the world, their organization, strategies and business models as well as the role of innovation systems and institutions in their formation and growth. This comprehensive research text is vital reading for academics, researchers and students of high-tech and knowledge intensive entrepreneurship as well as those with an interest in industrial dynamics, innovation management and public policy.

This book explores the relationship between the circular economy and the building technologies within the quintuple helix innovation model. The main question the book answers is whether and how the conversion of sustainable construction processes can be a powerful engine of innovation for the industry. The post-disaster settlements and temporary shelters are assumed as examples of what can be defined as circular buildings in regards to the technical arrangements and features, material and process reversibility, as the social and participative dimensions. Several cases of these interventions are documented and classified by three thematic axes: design, building and living. This highlighted new trajectories for innovation in building technology, consistent with the social, economic and productive dynamics that no longer allows for growing performance by increasing the resource demand. A theoretic framework is traced supporting this vision, which shows how the low technologies can respond to the transition of the economic model from linear to circular. Within this trajectory, the low-tech design for remanufacturing represents a reference framework and a promising tool applicable to the building processes. The enabling technologies and new paradigms for the transition to circular economy emerging from the European research scenario are also mapped, outlining z`the possible future developments in line with open technical and societal challenges.

This book presents the first multidimensional investigation of KIE in the context of low-tech industries and gives insights in paradox conditions and specific mechanisms, using the example of the German textile industry. Therefore, the author solves conceptual inconsistencies and develops an alternative framework referring to systemic concepts of sectoral innovation systems and KIE as well as to the concept of institutional entrepreneurs. As a result, the deviation of willful actors from a restricting institutional environment and sources of entrepreneurial opportunities can be investigated more comprehensively. Contents The Sectoral Innovation System of the German Textile Industry The German Textile Industry as an Example The Emergence of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Industries Target Groups Students and lecturers of economic sociology and economics Decision makers in industrial policies and economic promotion The Author During her PhD, Isabel Schwinge researched and lectured at the Chair of Economic and Industrial Sociology, TU Dortmund University. The Sectoral Innovation System of the German Textile Industry The German Textile Industry as an Example The Emergence of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Industries Target Groups Students and lecturers of economic sociology and economics Decision makers in industrial policies and economic promotion The Author During her PhD, Isabel Schwinge researched and lectured at the Chair of Economic and Industrial Sociology, TU Dortmund University. The Sectoral Innovation System of the German Textile Industry The German Textile Industry as an Example The Emergence of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Industries Target Groups Students and lecturers of economic sociology and economics Decision makers in industrial policies and economic promotion The Author During her PhD, Isabel Schwinge researched and lectured at the Chair of Economic and Industrial Sociology, TU Dortmund University. The Sectoral Innovation System of the German Textile Industry The German Textile Industry as an Example The Emergence of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Industries Target Groups Students and lecturers of economic sociology and economics Decision makers in industrial policies and economic promotion The Author During her PhD, Isabel Schwinge researched and lectured at the Chair of Economic and Industrial Sociology, TU Dortmund University. The Sectoral Innovation System of the German Textile Industry The German Textile Industry as an Example The Emergence of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Industries Target Groups Students and lecturers of economic sociology and economics Decision makers in industrial policies and economic promotion The Author During her PhD, Isabel Schwinge researched and lectured at the Chair of Economic and Industrial Sociology, TU Dortmund University.

In this book David Audretsch examines the impact of public policy in the entrepreneurial society and in ensuring that entrepreneurship continues to serve as a driving force for economic performance. Do university policies or knowledge conditions

A landmark reference work in the field, this Elgar Encyclopedia presents over 60 entries from scholars that have shaped the making of the economics of innovation as a distinct and specialised field of investigation within the broad range of economic disciplines. This will be a critical read for economics scholars, particularly those focusing on knowledge and innovation as it offers an understanding of the definitions of key terms in the field, the founding tenets of the topic, and the economics of knowledge and innovation in more specific contexts.

This ground-breaking new book builds upon the Schumpeterian creative response. The author shows that firms, in out-of-equilibrium conditions, try and react by means of introducing innovations. The success of their reaction is contingent upon their access conditions to knowledge, which are shaped by the system in which they operate. The emergence of new innovations can, in turn, knock firms further out-of-equilibrium and cause changes in the system properties that govern their access to external knowledge. This path dependent loop of interactions between the system properties and the individual actions of firms, accounts for endogenous innovation and the dynamics of the system.

This special issue of the journal tries to shed light on how innovation processes occur in less developed regions by examining which factors affect these processes and how they differ substantially between the less developed and the more developed areas in Europe. There are significant differences in innovation capacity among the lagging-peripheral and the more developed regions. Recently, the downgrading of traditional manufacturing and districts-based models in Europe has also highlighted the importance of enhancing relationships between the global and local-regional networks of entrepreneurs and innovators. The transfer of resources alone is not enough to create competitive regional economies in a global world. In this regard, innovation policy may be crucial in designing new paths for development and increasing innovation in peripheral regions. The issue consists of six articles. All of the papers focus on analyzing various aspects of the less developed and peripheral areas within a European context, and look at innovation issues from different research perspectives and methods. In particular, four papers are related to innovation in SMEs and Smart Specialisation Strategy, innovation and the regional allocation of coordination–participation in projects across EU regions, innovation policy and firm absorptive capacities, and innovation linkages with path development in rural areas. One article is based on the relationship between family firms and the propensity to invest in innovation, comparing the more and less developed macro geographical areas. The final paper concerns the nexus between policy planning and the local business ecosystems’ innovative and competitive competence. The first paper by Lukasz Arendt and Wojciech Grabowski focuses on indirectly assessing the impact of innovation policies conducted in Polish NUTS 2 regions within the framework of Regional Innovation Systems and Smart Specialisation Strategy. Interestingly, the authors combine firm-level data with meso data in a multilevel setting and observe that Polish SMEs in less developed regions mostly depend on in-house capabilities, rather than on regional innovative potential, to introduce different types of innovations. Another observation is that Polish SMEs are more likely to innovate if they have an R&D department, a higher quality of labor, realized investments and they use ICT. Finally, regional policies in these less-developed regions should focus more on linking firm-level factors with regional innovation systems, so as to enhance companies’ innovation capacity. The article by Pedro Varela-Vázquez, Manuel González-López and María del Carmen Sánchez-Carreira presents a consistent descriptive analysis concerning the regional allocation of coordination and participation in projects under the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes (FPs), as well as the funds allocated by the ongoing Horizon 2020. By comparing the 6th and 7th FPs, the authors show the existence of a slight reduction in the disparities, in particular, due to the higher participation of regions from Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The results show some interesting insights, as it emerges that developed regions account for most of the participation in projects and funds from the FP instruments. Concerning less developed regions, an uneven geographical distribution of projects and funds leads to the reinforcement of pre-existing industrial and innovation hubs. The third paper is by Marco Pini. The author investigates whether, in less developed regions, family businesses run by outside managers show a higher propensity to innovate (investing in Industry 4.0) than those where the managers are family members. This research focuses on the impact of digital innovation between the less developed Italian regions (Southern) and the more developed regions (the Centre-North). The results show that in Southern Italy, family businesses are more likely to invest in digital technologies when the firm is run by an external manager and spends on R&D. However, in less developed regions, R&D requires new competencies and capabilities. Hence, innovation policies should be based on specific “innovation patterns” defined within individual regions, not only in terms of R&D incentives, but also in encouraging a policy mix approach that is not entirely based on R&D and technology issues. The fourth paper, written by Agnė Paliokaitė, refers to the “regional innovation paradox,” i.e. the low absorption capacity of public funds for innovation shown by less developed region. The author has carried out an analysis of innovation policies applied to central and eastern European countries between 2007 and 2013. She finds that policies hardly promote structural changes as they mainly focus on improving the capacities of mature sectors and on adopting existing technologies. In this sense, the results suggest that a more tailored approach to innovation capacity building is needed, taking into account the current capacity levels within the target groups. The fifth paper, by Merli Reidolf and Martin Graffenberger, analyses the role of local resources for firm innovation and path development in rural areas. Based on the case of Estonia, they find that rural resources (physical, human, immaterial, social and community, and financial) have the potential to extend and upgrade regional development paths, and to enrich existing paths with additional functions. However, merely relying on rural resources to facilitate substantial changes in regional paths does not suffice. Finally, the sixth paper which has been written by Charis Vlados and Dimos Chatzinikolaou analyses the case of business ecosystem policy from a physiological and evolutionary perspective, the so-called “Strategy, Technology and Management” which represents the organic center of the produced innovation, inside a socioeconomic organism. By studying the case of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region, one of the less developed regions in Greece, they present an introductory and qualitative field research. The authors outline a new possible direction for policy planning and implementation in order to expand the local business ecosystems’ innovative and competitive competence, especially in the context of a less developed region, by the usage of the ILDI (Institutes of Local Development and Innovation) mechanism. We would sincerely like to thank the authors for their contributions to this special issue. The articles offer us the opportunity to evaluate various facets underneath innovation issues within the context of different peripheral areas. We also thank all the reviewers for their commitment, and for contributing to improving the quality and reliability of the articles. Finally, our special thanks go to the Editor in Chief, Prof. Anna Ujwary-Gil, for her tireless and valuable effort in producing this journal. And, lastly, we hope that all of our readers around the world find these articles an inspiration to conduct more research on these topics in the future.