This research derives from an EU DG Enterprise (IPS Programme) project on bio-incubation, called Bio-Link. The Bio-Link project is innovative in three ways. First, it involves an international comparative analysis of biotechnology incubators of the kind that is rarely if ever done. Second, the...

Since Paul David published his economic histories of path dependent innovation the subject has exerted fascination upon scholars of innovation, technological change and, latterly, regional scientists and economic geographers. This paper speaks to the third and fourth of these communities in the...

This paper builds on a suite of research studies examining the metamorphosis in industry organisation, as Penrose calls it, regarding the centrality of firm capabilities in biosciences. Whereas knowledge leadership capabilities used to be inside global corporations now they have given way to...

This paper elaborates on the concept of 'knowledge economy' as a prelude to demonstrating its incidence at regional and sub-regional levels in the UK, EU and Israel. The paper shows consistencies in the incidence of knowledge economies across the countries and georegion. This is a good test of...

The paper explores the extent to which social capital is advantageous to small and medium enterprise (SME) growth. Social capital is a communal property involving civic engagement, associational membership, high trust, reliability and reciprocity in social networks. It is capable of being...

C OOKE P., R OPER S. and W YLIE P. (2003) "The golden thread of innovation' and Northern Ireland's evolving regional innovation system, Reg. Studies 37 , 365-379. The title embodies the belief, expressed in 2000 by Northern Ireland's Economic Development Minister, Sir Reg Empey, that innovation...

This paper focuses on 'triple helix' effects in biosciences. Scientific change can have profound socioeconomic effects. The molecular biology revolution tilted pharmaceuticals production away from its fine chemistry path dependence into microbiology and biotechnology. The key to any triple helix...

Cooke P., Clifton N. and Oleaga M. (2005) Social capital, firm embeddedness and regional development, Regional Studies 39 , 1065-1077. This paper presents the results of a research project examining the effects of social capital on the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in...