Over the course of the last 10 or 15 years there appears to be taking place a fundamental shift in the 'industrial paradigm' governing the nature of competition in advanced industrial markets. Among the characteristics of this shift are a transition from mass production to flexible manufacturing...

This paper shows that plant and firm size in manufacturing, and especially in engineering industry, in several Western industrial countries has declined since the early 1970s. Two hypotheses explaining the decline are advanced. One is 'de-glomeration' or specialization: the divestiture of...

There is a need for a conceptual approach that, with reference to explicit micro-level mechanisms and processes of industrial dynamics, articulates the role and function of entrepreneurial experimentation in innovation systems. This paper develops the concept of "entrepreneurial systems of...

This paper suggests that the spillover of knowledge may not occur automatically as has typically been assumed in models of endogenous growth. Rather, a mechanism is required that serves as a conduit for the spillover and commercialization of knowledge from the source creating it to the firm...

The intellectual breakthrough contributed by the new growth theory was the recognition that investments in knowledge and human capital endogenously generate economic growth through the spillover of knowledge. Endogenous growth theory does not explain how or why spillovers occur. The missing link...

Contemporary theories of entrepreneurship generally focus on the decision-making context of the individual. The recognition of opportunities and the decision to commercialize them is the focal concern. While the prevalent view in the entrepreneurship literature is that opportunities are...