Innovative Regions, Clusters and Milieux

In Chap. 2, it was shown that some characteristics of nations have been important for determining the level of knowledge generation and technological innovation. The processes of knowledge accumulation, for example, are influential in the co-evolution of the scientific and industrial specialisations of countries. Although, the level of innovative effort of countries is not pre-determined, it does seem that trajectories once established are hard to alter relative to that of other countries. An analytical perspective that adopts as its starting point the nation state, can be shown to provide valuable insights as to why particular pieces of geography succeed more than others at generating, acquiring and utilising knowledge. However, Chap. 2 also revealed that this national approach to the study of innovation has only partially succeeded in developing tools that can analyse the changes occurring in the geography of global production (see for example Friedman 2000). The emphasis on endogenous capability and the comparative benchmarking approach inherent in NIS analysis also highlights the need to build a multi-spatial innovation framework that can integrate the continuing benefits of place and the growing levels of trans-border production.