Knowledge spillovers, entrepreneurship and economic development

Abstract

Knowledge spillover refers to the diffusion or sharing of knowledge from where it is created or from one to another agent in society. It is in this way that it becomes useful beyond the sequestered knowledge of an individual agent and thus acquires societal value. There are many factors that constrain or hinder the flow of knowledge and the sum total of these factors is referred to by some as the "knowledge filter" (Acs et al. 2004;Audretsch et al. 2006). To be more explicit, when the corpus of factors that constrain the flow of knowledge is great or strong the knowledge filter bottlenecks the flow and vice versa when the constraining factors are weak. Fundamental among the various technical and institutional factors that make up the "knowledge filter" is proximity. It is argued that knowledge tends to spill over more easily when the source of the knowledge is near the agent or place where it "spills" to, ceteris paribus. There is considerable interest in the literature on the nature of the proximal effect as well as the other factors impacting the flow of knowledge (see for example, Agrawal et al. 2003;Fischer et al. 2001;Karlsson and Manduchi 2001;Jaffe et al. 1993;Koo 2007;Autant-Bernard et al. 2007).The impetus of this mini-special edition on knowledge spillover stems from the continuing quest to better understand the role of proximity and other factors that impact the rate at which knowledge flows through the filter. The associated papers are all empirical in nature and thus help to extend the factual based understanding of knowledge spillovers.

Modelling innovation support systems for regional development – analysis of cluster structures in innovation in Portugal

“…This shift in the relative cost of knowledge (tacit and not explicit) reinforced the relevance of geographical proximity, pulling many traditional arguments to the limits of location theory. Location analysis became increasingly centred on the advantages of (geographical, institutional or cognitive) proximity for knowledge-creating areas 1 or on the importance of knowledge diffusion circuits (or its spillovers) as pointed out by Stough and Nijkamp (2009) and Torre (2008).…”

The Firms Behind the Regions: Analysis of Regional Innovation Performance in Portugal by External Logistic Biplots

“…In the Portuguese case, most of the socio-economic indicators demonstrate that economic activities are becoming more concentrated in the northern and western areas as a result of various structural factors (OECD, 2008). Probable impediments to economic development in the rest of the country include those relating to knowledge flows, referred to as knowledge filters in the current literature (Acs et al, 2004;Audretsch et al, 2006;Stough and Nijkamp, 2009), while there is also a lack of a clear focus on regional innovation systems, as pointed out by OECD (2008).…”

Sustainability in the trans-border regions? The case of Andalusia - Algarve

“…As argued in Stough and Nijkamp, 2009, their governance systems incorporate filters blocking knowledge spillover effects or positive entrepreneurial attitudes towards investment and innovativeness. A possible interface between the institutional and the historical context may be decisive for the territorial atrophy but, at the same time, it constitutes the only platform to push further the learning processes.…”