Contents:
Preface 1. Beneath the surface 2. Innovation success in follower-firms 3. Changing policies for science and technology: government and markets 4. Innovation on the shopfloor - a new wave 5. From process to product and proprietary 6. Managing R&D in technology-followers 7. Design leadership for technology-followers 8. Building a culture for innovation 9. Followers to leaders.

The last years have seen a profusion of books and articles on managing technology, focused almost exclusively on leading edge firms in leading edge countries. This book argues that succeeding as a follower-firm requires learning from many experiences and avoiding simplistic 'how-to' approaches that prescribe one best practice. Individual chapters cover:

* the role of innovation on the shop-floor
* the importance of mixing process and product innovation
* the challenges involved in building an innovation culture
* the special role of R&D and design.

These topics instruct a deeper understanding of strategy in follower-firms, simultaneously providing insight for public policy in building local technological capacity. Forbes and Wield argue that there are many 'leading edges' which appear in the most unlikely places. Their book contains major case studies from many different firms in twelve countries over five continents, in industry segments as diverse as pharmaceuticals, software, garments, beer and steel.

This informative book for students, researchers and professionals in the fields of business, management and information technology shows that successful experiences can arise anywhere in the world.

Science parks are becoming established in increasing numbers in almost all parts of the world. Promoted as places on the frontiers of science where a new breed of scientist-entrepreneur invents a new future, extolled as high-status workplaces where a new style of employee and flexible labour process is in the making, they are seen as the potential saviours of local and national economies. High-Tech Fantasies criticises the divisive hype of science parks arguing that both the theory and practice are unproductive for the economy and for any socially progressive science and technology. Questioning responsibility, innovation and symbolism, the authors explore the mutual determination of society, science and space.

"High-Tech Fantasies" goes beyond the normal "policy evaluation" to examine the underlying assumptions which science parks embody about science and society and their relation to space and geographical uneven development. It is argued that science parks are founded on a notion of scientific production and industrial innovation which is not only technically inappropriate but also intrinsically socially divisive. Moreover, the spatial form and symbolic spatial content of science parks - near to academe, far from physical production and with specific design characteristics - further increases their tendency to promote (and depend upon) social polarization. This polarization takes a precise geographical form, exemplified in the clustering of "high-tech" in the semi-rural regions of the south and east of England. The book focuses on the tight and mutual relation between the forms of scientific production, social structures and geographical inequality, dismantling the popular concept of science parks to present an alternative conceptualization from which the real implications of science-park developments can be drawn. This book should be of interest to university students of geography, so