Innovation, Interaction and Space

Innovation is widely regarded as the driving force behind economic growth and sustaining prosperity. There is a growing literature dedicated to the process of innovation within businesses and it is increasingly clear that a business' ability to innovate is conditioned by the characteristics of its location. For example, Michael Porter of Harvard Business School maintains that sustainable competitive advantages in a global economy lies “increasingly in local things – knowledge, relationships and motivation”. Even with this growing acceptance that the environment within which a business is located influences its ability to innovate, it remains difficult to measure and test the effect on innovation of these external factors. In this thought-provoking book, Declan Jordan sets out the current state of thinking in relation to the effects of external interaction and geographic proximity on innovaiton in business-level innovation. Drawing on evidence from Ireland, the book challenges the widely-held policy consensus on innovation and poses important questions for anyone involved (or interested) in the development of so- called smart economies.