We analyze the frequency and nature by which new firms are acquired by established businesses. Acquisitions are often considered to reflect a technology transfer process and to also constitute one way in which a “symbiosis” between new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and established...

African countries lag clearly behind developed countries when it comes to accumulating technological capabilities, upgrading and catching up. Also, firms in least developed countries are characterised by very low levels of absorptive capacity. It is therefore crucial to understand how this...

This study investigates the determinants of R&D expenditures in the Swedish pharmaceutical industry from the 1960s to the mid 1990s. Various proxies for the rate of return of R&D (e.g. expected profit, sales and R&D productivity) as well as the availability of internal funding (proxied by past...

The focus in this paper is on industrial dynamics and its impact on energy systems.. We highlight some fundamental patterns of this long-term dynamics, using the Dahmenian concept ‘development blocks’, with ‘market widening’ and ‘market suction’, and discuss the implications for...

This paper deals with institutional conditions in regional innovation systems; how institutions affect the organization of innovation activities among firms, and in what ways regional policy initiatives can be supportive. The analysis draws on data on innovation networks and activities in the...

This paper analyzes factors that shape the technological capabilities of individual U.S. states and European countries, which are arguably comparable policy units. The analysis demonstrates convergence in technological capabilities from 2000 to 2007. The results indicate that social...

Traditionally, economic geographers stress geographical proximity’s positive impact on collaboration processes. Recently, effects of cognitive, organisational, social and institutional proximity dimensions have been emphasised. This paper examines the relations between geography and these...

User-producer interactions have been traditionally recognized as important for innovation. With the rapid growth of emerging economies’ markets, and an increasing degree of technological sophistication of both users and producers in those markets, user-producer interaction is becoming global....

Previous research has shown that firms react differently to the same institutional configurations due to their different backgrounds. This study examines a regional economy in France in which 300 firms are operating under the same framework conditions and have done so over a long period. From...

There is consistent evidence in the literature that average employee age is negatively related to firm-level innovativeness. This observation has been explained by older employees working with outdated technological knowledge and being characterized by reduced cognitive flexibility. We argue...