Overview

This book addresses the sustained resurgence of American economy, and the firms, regions, and technologies that are driving this growth. Michael Best develops a new model of technology management and regional innovation based on the principle of systems integration. The principle of systems integration is manifest in the organizational capability of firms, individually and networked, to foster rapid technological change. Application of the principle of sysyems integration to business organization means integrating an ongoing technology management capability into a production system. The effect is a network or clusterof entrepreneurial firms in which design is decentralized within the enterprise and diffused anongst networked enterprises.It is a business model ideally suited to product-led strategies and technological innovation. The combination of entreprenurial firms and inter-firm networks is shown to foster a range of dynamic cluster processes which, in turn, underlie the growth of Silicon Valley and the unexpected resurgence of Boston's Route 128. The general character of the capabilities and innovation perspective is illustrated with applications to regions at different levels of industrial development. The implications for policy making are profound: technology management is a powerful lever for both fostering growth and shaping competitive advantage. Moreover, it offers a framework for addressing the challenge of ecologically sustainable growth. Complex product systems, such as energy, transportation, and health, are a consequence of past and present technology R&D choices and corresponding investements in technical education. Thus capability and skill development policies shape what is on offer in the marketplace.

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9780198297444

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Valuable insights ... an important contribution to our understanding of regional innovation systems ... well researched and well-written with some powerful ideas ... provides an important set of challenges for 21st century innovation research and practice. Technovation Best's analysis is insightful, contemporary, and rightfully stresses that technology, institutions, and geography all matter in interrelated ways for innovation and the creation of competitive advantage ... The case-study comparisons are interesting and effective, closely related to the conceptual discussion. Environment and Planning

Valuable insights ... an important contribution to our understanding of regional innovation systems ... well researched and well-written with some powerful ideas ... provides an important set of challenges for 21st century innovation research and practice. Technovation Best's analysis is insightful, contemporary, and rightfully stresses that technology, institutions, and geography all matter in interrelated ways for innovation and the creation of competitive advantage ... The case-study comparisons are interesting and effective, closely related to the conceptual discussion. Environment and Planning

Author Information

Michael Best is University Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He was Arthur Andersen Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Cambridge in 1999. Professor Best has also taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Sussex University; and Queen Mary College, London University. He is the author of The New Competition: Institutions of Industrial Restructuring (Polity Press and Harvard University Press, 1991) which has sold over 10,000 copies.

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