The aim of this chapter is to explore some of the issues and to underline the main aspects that have been focussed upon in the PILOT project. We begin the chapter with consideration of why so much academic and policy attention has been paid, in our view disproportionately, to high-tech...

It is often argued that high tech industries drive growth processes, and that they are the sources of growth in output, employment and productivity in the knowledge economy. This is a special case of a more general argument that economic growth is characterized by the creation of new and the...

This paper examines the dynamics of the computer hardware industry in Ireland and Scotland in a global context, from its inception in the late 1950s to the present. It provides a detailed account of plant openings and closures in both the system assembly and the component manufacturing segment....

H<sc>illiard</sc> R. and J<sc>acobson</sc> D. Cluster versus firm specific-factors in the development of dynamic capabilities in the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland: a study of responses to changes in environmental protection regulations, <italic>Regional Studies</italic>. This paper uses the evolutionary economic theory of...

This paper is based on case studies of four low- and medium-technology firms, two in the furniture industry and two in the metal products industry. The research on innovation and geographic proximity, combined with a reconceptualisation of the Granovetterian concept of embeddedness, provides the...