Something New: Where do new industries come from?

The focus of this paper is on the question of how new industries originate in places. There is often confusion between the process of diffusion and the locational factors that give rise to early stage creative discovery. There is a long and distinguished literature that considers the diffusion of ideas. Diffusion is important as it influences the general uptake and implementation of ideas across geography but it is a different process than our focus here. We advance the argument that the creation of new industries is a process that has inherently geographic features. Something new is created out of prior knowledge but a more complex process is required to develop an industry and reap the economic benefits.