In an era of intense globalization, the critical role of the region as a center for economic development has sometimes been overlooked. Moreover, innovation is increasingly being recognized as being a critical driver of economic growth and development. However, innovation is no longer being seen as a function of research and development; nor is R&D being seen as being sufficient for the creation of technology-intensive industries and the valuable economic spillovers that result in high value-added jobs and exports. Indeed, much more than ever before, it is the combination of factors that contributes to innovation - ranging over skills, finance, production, user-producer linkages, the capacity of organizations to learn, and multilayered government policies - that make local regions the favorites of fortune. Using an evolutionary economic perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines and accomplished scholars, Local and Regional Systems of Innovation explores important issues at a conceptual, methodological and comparative level concerning how successful locations actually construct their comparative advantage.

In an era of intense knowledge-based globalization and technology-based competition, the central role of networks, alliances and partnerships is now becoming recognized. By looking at the dynamics of these strategic organizational activities, leading authors in the field examine, in this book, how firms align themselves, how they use networks and enter into partnerships in order to develop new or radically improved processes, and how they introduce new or radically improved products to the market. The topic excludes, as the primary interest, spatial effects, such as those found in geographic clusters, or in regional innovation systems. The focus here is instead on the innovation process, and therefore examines framework issues about how we can assess networks of innovators, measurement issues for both researchers and official statisticians, and impact issues for both industry strategists and policy makers.

Using an evolutionary perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines, Networks, Partnerships and Alliances explores important issues at the conceptual, methodological and comparative levels concerning the construction of comparative advantage.

Examining the issues facing smaller regions and countries, John de la Mothe explores how innovation, strategy and interdependence shape their performance, competition, and futures. Innovation and interdependence are central elements of advanced and advancing economies. In our globalized world, the production of knowledge is continually evolving. This is reflected in the design of institutions and in the results on the standards of living that are achieved and sustained. It also implies new forms of competition. Increasingly, smaller countries, regions and cities that do not fit into traditional theories of growth are becoming leaders in technology-intensive products and quick followers in innovative practices. Often heavily committed to large emerging economic markets (such as China and India) and political hegemons (such as Germany, Japan, and the United States), smaller nations, regions and cities are playing an almost unprecedented role in the shape of things to come. By examining the texture of the new economy, paths to constructing advantage, and aspects of the cultures that lead to the new economy, this book provides a valuable and essential guide to scholars, policymakers, strategists and students.

It is now widely recognized that many of the central unresolved problems in economic policy, management and research turn on questions of knowledge. Increasingly, complex firms and agencies must ask, and answer, such difficult questions as: What is knowledge? Where is it? Who has it? Does the organization lose or gain competitive advantage or effectiveness by sharing knowledge? Where can we find the knowledge we need? How can we measure knowledge? In a knowledge-based economy, these queries are integral to the pursuits of every policy maker, analyst and strategist. Knowledge Management in The Innovation Process - a joint project between Statistics Canada and Program of Research on Innovation Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa - brings together economic, social, measurement and policy views on these critical issues. This project fits into an ongoing research program at Statistics Canada to develop meaningful indicators for science, technology and innovation in a technology-intensive economy. It also fits into the ongoing program at PRIME to better understand technology policy and innovation strategy. This book tells the story of the dynamic interplay between knowledge and innovation with an eye to developing tools and frameworks for managing knowledge for social and economic benefit.

Biotechnology' - the integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering for the technological application of the capabilities of microbes and cultured tissue cells - is quickly becoming pervasive and challenging, rapidly developing both new techniques and industries. The Economic and Social Dynamics of Biotechnology - a joint project between Statistics Canada, the Program of Research on Innovation, Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa, and CIRANO at the University of Quebec in Montreal - brings together economic, social, and statistical views on the dynamics of this set of emerging technologies. It examines the costs as well as the benefits - the challenges as well as the choices - of the rapidly expanding science-based world of biodiversity, biopharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics, and it provides suggestions for future work and research. This project fits into an ongoing research program at Statistics Canada to develop meaningful indicators for science, technology, and innovation in a technology-intensive economy. This book tells the story of the inner workings of innovation systems, technological systems, and competence blocs in the production, use, and diffusion of knowledge.

In an era of intense globalization, the critical role of the region as a center for economic development has sometimes been overlooked. Moreover, innovation is increasingly being recognized as being a critical driver of economic growth and development. However, innovation is no longer being seen as a function of research and development; nor is R&D being seen as being sufficient for the creation of technology-intensive industries and the valuable economic spillovers that result in high value-added jobs and exports. Indeed, much more than ever before, it is the combination of factors that contributes to innovation - ranging over skills, finance, production, user-producer linkages, the capacity of organizations to learn, and multilayered government policies - that make local regions the favorites of fortune. Using an evolutionary economic perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines and accomplished scholars, Local and Regional Systems of Innovation explores important issues at a conceptual, methodological and comparative level concerning how successful locations actually construct their comparative advantage.

Information, Innovation and Impacts - a joint project between the Program of Research in International Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa and Statistics Canada - brings together economic, social and statistical views of the impacts of the innovative uses of information. It examines the costs as well as the benefits of rapidly expanding availability of data, of information, and of codified knowledge, and it provides suggestions for future work and research. This project fits into an on-going research program at Statistics Canada to develop indicators for science and technology (S&T) in a more coherent manner, and it fits into the research program of PRIME to better understand the dynamics of innovation in an information economy. Together, Statistics Canada and PRIME strive to tell the story of the activities in S&T systems, their interactions, and the outcomes as actors go about the generation, transmission, or mediation of knowledge, information, and of data, as part of the effective functioning of the system.

In an era of intense knowledge-based globalization and technology-based competition, the central role of networks, alliances and partnerships is now becoming recognized. By looking at the dynamics of these strategic organizational activities, leading authors in the field examine, in this book, how firms align themselves, how they use networks and enter into partnerships in order to develop new or radically improved processes, and how they introduce new or radically improved products to the market. The topic excludes, as the primary interest, spatial effects, such as those found in geographic clusters, or in regional innovation systems. The focus here is instead on the innovation process, and therefore examines framework issues about how we can assess networks of innovators, measurement issues for both researchers and official statisticians, and impact issues for both industry strategists and policy makers. Using an evolutionary perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines, Networks, Partnerships and Alliances explores important issues at the conceptual, methodological and comparative levels concerning the construction of comparative advantage.

It is now widely recognized that many of the central unresolved problems in economic policy, management and research turn on questions of knowledge. Increasingly, complex firms and agencies must ask, and answer, such difficult questions as: * What is knowledge? * Where is it? Who has it? * Does the organization lose or gain competitive advantage or effectiveness by sharing knowledge? * Where can we find the knowledge we need? * How can we measure knowledge? In a knowledge-based economy, these queries are integral to the pursuits of every policy maker, analyst and strategist. Knowledge Management in The Innovation Process - a joint project between Statistics Canada and Program of Research on Innovation Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa - brings together economic, social, measurement and policy views on these critical issues. This project fits into an ongoing research program at Statistics Canada to develop meaningful indicators for science, technology and innovation in a technology-intensive economy. It also fits into the ongoing program at PRIME to better understand technology policy and innovation strategy.This book tells the story of the dynamic interplay between knowledge and innovation with an eye to developing tools and frameworks for managing knowledge for social and economic benefit.

`Biotechnology' - the integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering for the technological application of the capabilities of microbes and cultured tissue cells - is quickly becoming pervasive and challenging, rapidly developing both new techniques and industries. The Economic and Social Dynamics of Biotechnology - a joint project between Statistics Canada, the Program of Research on Innovation, Management and Economy (PRIME) at the University of Ottawa, and CIRANO at the University of Quebec in Montreal - brings together economic, social, and statistical views on the dynamics of this set of emerging technologies. It examines the costs as well as the benefits - the challenges as well as the choices - of the rapidly expanding science-based world of biodiversity, biopharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics, and it provides suggestions for future work and research. This project fits into an ongoing research program at Statistics Canada to develop meaningful indicators for science, technology, and innovation in a technology-intensive economy. This book tells the story of the inner workings of innovation systems, technological systems, and competence blocs in the production, use, and diffusion of knowledge.

The condition of modernity springs from that tension between science and the humanities that had its roots in the Enlightenment but reached its full flowering with the rise of twentieth-century technology. It manifests itself most notably in the crisis of individuality that is generated by the nexus of science, literature, and politics, one that challenges each of us to find a way of balancing our personal identities between our public and private selves in an otherwise estranging world. This challenge, which can only be expressed as "the struggle of modernity," perhaps finds no better expression than in C. P. Snow. In his career as novelist, scientist, and civil servant, C. P. Snow (1905-1980) attempted to bridge the disparate worlds of modern science and the humanities.

While Snow is often regarded as a late-Victorian liberal who has little to say about the modernist period in which he lived and wrote, de la Mothe challenges this judgment, reassessing Snow's place in twentieth-century thought. He argues that Snow's life and writings--most notably his Strangers and Brothers sequence of novels and his provocative thesis in The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution--reflect a persistent struggle with the nature of modernity. They manifest Snow's belief that science and technology were at the center of modern life.