Embedding Stand-Alone, ‘Local Buzz’ and ‘Global Pipeline’ Firms; a Plea for a Less Traditional Regional Innovation Policy

This paper deals with the policy implications of a research project based on a non-traditional approach to innovation measurement in a Dutch region. This region is characterized by an ‘innovation paradox’, as it lodges large numbers of ‘creative’ people while it also underperforms in traditional innovation measurements. A survey among experts regarding regional innovation yields large numbers of innovative firms in a wide range of industries, which in traditional studies would partly go unnoticed. Further data analysis reveals that innovation in the region has no clear face in terms of firms and sectors. This is due to the embroynic state of clustering in different subsectors, the mostly social and informal nature of network ties between entrepreneurs in the region, the international level at which much innovation-oriented networking takes place, and the lack of connectivity between the latter networks and local informal networks and the embryonic clusters. In terms of their innovation profile, firms in the region are strong in creative, non-technical and combined forms of innovation. So, dynamic capabilities especially show up ‘downstream’, connecting novelty with clients and markets, and translating this into change management and new practices. Next, we found that firms strategically engage in innovation ventures, in the three ways that were explained before by Bathelt et al. (2004), i.e. seeking and combining international knowledge with one’s own (constructing ‘global pipelines’), strengthening regional ties, identity, contact and linkages (‘local buzz’), and relying on one’s own resources for innovation (‘stand alone’ strategy). One challenge for policy is to exploit these three strategies of firms. Such can be done in three ways. One is to use the abundant social capital in the region, with a view to strengthening the economic relevance of existing local networks by constructing and extending ‘global pipelines’. The second is to display leadership and formulate a ‘community argument’ for innovation (dealing with the following sub questions: why must I innovate, why must I interact in networks and clusters, and why should I do so at different spatial scales?), thus strategically reorienting the available ‘local buzz’ and enhancing its economic relevance. Together, these two proposals serve the purpose of stimulating knowledge flows ‘outside-in’ and ‘inside-out’ (cf. Wolfe & Gertler 2005). The third is to correct for the policy myopia on cluster and network initiatives. The price we pay for the Porterian approach to clustering (cf. Martin & Sunley 2003; Hospers 2005) is that a significant number of firms in the region under review that individually engage in innovation processes, are not part of ‘global pipeline’ and ‘local buzz’ processes. Hence, they do not enrich nor benefit from these processes, and may thus relatively easy leave the region. Finally, they may be less effective in innovation, in terms of speed and the market fit of new products and processes. So, both from a regional and firm-level perspective, stand-alone firms merit attention.

Beyond clusters: Fostering innovation through a differentiated and combined network approach

Over the past decades, economic and innovation policy across Europe moved in the direction of creating regional clusters of related firms and institutions. Creating clusters through public policy is risky, complex and costly, however. Moreover, it is not necessary to rely on clusters to stimulate innovation. A differentiated and combined network approach to enhancing innovation and stimulating economic growth may be more efficient and effective, especially though not exclusively in regions lacking clusters. The challenge of such a policy is to mitigate the bottlenecks associated with ‘global pipeline’, ‘local buzz’ and ‘stand alone’ strategies used by innovative firms (cf. Bathelt et al. 2004; Atzema & Visser 2005b), and to combine these strategies with a view to their complementarity in terms of knowledge effects. Private and semi-public brokers will be key in the evolving policy, as timely organizational change is crucial for continued innovation, while brokers also need to mitigate governance problems. This requires region-specific knowledge in terms of sectors, life cycles, institutional and socio-cultural factors, and yields spatially differentiated and differentiating adjustment strategies. The role of public policy is to assist in recruiting, provide start-up funding and monitor brokers. With this, policy moves towards a decentralized, process-based, region-specific, spatially diverging and multi-level system of innovation that is geared towards the evolving innovation strategies of firms.innovation policy, clusters, networks, governance, regionalization

Kinsey Dialogue Series #3: Landscaping the Learning Environment to Create a Home for the Complex Mind

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey Lecture to bring together some of the ideas expressed in my recent work, and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context that experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of the environment supposedly created to nurture it. Neglect of the essential conditions for its sustenance and growth has led the mind to lose its natural habitat, putting it at risk of becoming extinct. My emphasis will therefor be on what should be done to landscape the learning environment in such a way that the complex mind can find a home in it. I shall develop my ideas and raise questions about this issue, while calling attention to a number of key concepts

Landscaping the Learning Environment to Create a Home for the Complex Mind

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey lecture to bring together some ideas expressed in m recent work and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context. That experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of the environment supposedly created to nurture it. Neglect of the essential conditions for its sustenance and growth has led the mind to lose its natural habitat, putting it at risk of becoming extinct. My emphasis will therefore be on what should be done to landscape the learning environment in such a way that the complex mind can find a home in it. I shall develop my ideas and raise questions about this issue, while calling attention to a number of key concepts

Hard Real-Time Networking on Firewire

This paper investigates the possibility of using standard, low-cost, widely used FireWire as a new generation fieldbus medium for real-time distributed control applications. A real-time software subsystem, RT-FireWire was designed that can, in combination with Linux-based real-time operating system, provide hard real-time communication over FireWire. In addition, a high-level module that can emulate Ethernet over RT-FireWire was implemented. This additional module enables existing IP-based real-time communication frameworks to work on top of FireWire. The real-time behavior of RT-FireWire was demonstrated with a simple control setup. Furthermore, an outlook of the future development on RT-FireWire is given

Agromere: how to integrate urban agriculture in the development of the Dutch city of Almere?

Urban agriculture produces green city areas with as an extra dimension providing food, energy, care, education or recreation for the civilians. And thus it can contribute to a more sustainable and liveable cities. The objective of the project Agromere is to create a process which will lead to a new residential quarter where agriculture is fully integrated in city live. Agromere is situated in the fast growing city of Almere, the Netherlands. In a combined stakeholder and design process a township is designed which integrates living (5,000 inhabitants) with urban agriculture on 250 ha. During this process an enthusiastic network of stakeholders has been established which developed innovating and unique ideas on urban farming. The potential for organic farming in the city is high because of its emphasis on animal welfare and consumer relations