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Firms Navigating Through Innovation Spaces: A Conceptualization of How Firms Search and Perceive Technological, Market and Productive Opportunities Globally

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Foundations of Economic Change

Part of the book series: Economic Complexity and Evolution ((ECAE))

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Abstract

The main contribution of this paper is a theory-based conceptual framework of innovation spaces, and how firms must navigate through them to innovate. The concept of innovation systems—at the regional, sectoral and national levels—have been highly influential. Previous literature developing the concept of innovation systems has stressed the importance of institutions, networks and knowledge bases at the regional, sectoral and national levels. This paper primarily draws upon an evolutionary and Schumpeterian economics perspective, in the following three senses. The conceptualization of ‘innnovation spaces’ focuses upon how and why firm search for innovations is influenced the opportunities within certain geographical contexts. This means that the firm create opportunities and can span different context, but they are influence by the context in term of the access, flow and co-evolution of ideas, resources, technology, people and knowledge, which help stimulate business innovation in terms of products, process and services. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research and especially the need to focus on globalization as a process of intensifying linkages across the globe.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The rate and distribution of change across technological areas can be measured empirically in many different ways, including studies of technical aspects, such as performance of new materials, as well as studies of more interrelated economic-technological aspects, such as the ratio of price to performance, or second-order effects on demand.

  2. 2.

    Moykr (2002) also proposes a conceptualization of two types of useful knowledge, namely ‘propositional’ (what) and ‘prescriptive’ (how). He argues that much of technology is about ‘prescriptive’ knowledge but is based upon much ‘propositional’ knowledge.

  3. 3.

    The use of techniques and instrumentation as well as the use of machines and capital equipment in factories were initially studied, as places where users impacted technical development.

  4. 4.

    Note that the concept of business innovation as economic phenomena includes a notion of ‘economic value’. Thereby innovation must be linked to a conceptualization of customer and markets, and not just remain at the stage of an idea. That is why the innovation literature generally distinguishes invention—such as an idea or technical item—from innovation—such as a new product introduced to the market.

  5. 5.

    Economic geography and human geography have extensive work on related concepts, including a recent special issue of Regional Studies (Boschma 2012; Healy and Morgan 2012; Shearmur 2011).

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements to the financiers, specifically the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture; Getinge; Volvo AB; and SKF. I would also like to acknowledge my co-author Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, especially our co-edited book on related topics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economy and Society, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Maureen McKelvey

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  1. Maureen McKelvey
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Correspondence to Maureen McKelvey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

    Andreas Pyka

  2. Department of Economics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Uwe Cantner

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McKelvey, M. (2017). Firms Navigating Through Innovation Spaces: A Conceptualization of How Firms Search and Perceive Technological, Market and Productive Opportunities Globally. In: Pyka, A., Cantner, U. (eds) Foundations of Economic Change. Economic Complexity and Evolution. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62009-1_8

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