Advances in Spatial Science - Editorial Board Manfred M. Fischer Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Phần 3

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Advances in Spatial Science - Editorial Board Manfred M. Fischer Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Phần 34 Critical Success Factors for a Knowledge-Based Economy 67role in advancing growth on a long-run basis. Here, convergence does not occur atall. This idea is shared by the growth theory of cumulative causation. “Cumulativecausation”, in which initial conditions determine the economic growth of places in aself-sustained and incremental way, does not leave room for unconditional conver-gence as a result of the emergence of economic inequalities among economies.Eventually then, economic policy has to come into play to correct those imbalances.The new economic geography (NEG) also shares the idea of economic growth as anunbalanced process favouring the initially advantaged economies. Here, however,emphasis is not placed on the economic system per se, but rather on the economicactors within the economies. It is the actors who decide, and, consequently, NEGis mainly concerned with the location of economic activity, agglomeration, andspecialization rather than with economic growth as such, which in the NEG contextwould be too abstract as an object of choice. Growth, however, is here the outcomeof making the right choices and can be inferred from its models. To date, knowledge diffusion from a geographical perspective is far from havingreached general conclusions. The theory of localized knowledge spillovers (LKS),for example, originates from the analytical models in the new economic geographytradition, and focuses more closely on the regional clustering of innovative activ-ities. In particular, it investigates the extent to which spillovers are local, rather thannational or international in scope. The main results from this type of econometricstudy on LKS is that innovation inputs (from private R&D or university research)lead to a greater innovation output when they originate from local sources, i.e. fromfirms or public institutes that are located in the same region (Castellacci 2007).These ideas appear to be in sharp contrast with the emphasis on the internationalscope of spillovers that other econometric studies suggest, and again underline theevolutionary path of theoretical growth studies. We therefore believe that it is worthexamining the scope for constructing an evolutionary economic geography. In thenext section, we will discuss the distinguishing features of an evolutionaryapproach to economic geography.An Evolutionary Perspective of Economic DynamicsAccording to Boschma and Martin (2007), theories on economic evolution have tosatisfy three basic requirements: they must be dynamic; they must deal withirreversible processes; and they must cover the generation and impact of noveltyas the ultimate source of self-transformation. The third criterion is particularlycrucial to any theory of economic evolution, dealing in particular with innovationand knowledge, whilst the first rules out any kind of statistical analysis, and thesecond all dynamic theories that describe stationary states or equilibrium move-ments, hereby distancing itself from mainstream economic theories. Evolutionaryeconomics is also applied to the investigation of uneven geographical development.Here, its basic concern is the process of the dynamic transformation of the eco-nomic landscape, where it aims to demonstrate how place matters in determining68 P. van Hemert and P. Nijkampthe trajectory of evolution of the economic system (Rafiqui 2008). For this demon-stration, concepts and metaphors from Darwinian evolutionary biology or complex-ity theory are employed, and innovation and knowledge in the spirit of Schumpeterare emphasized (Boschma and Lambooy 1999; Essletzbichler and Winther 1999;Boschma and Frenken 2006; Martin and Sunley 2006; Frenken 2007). In the light ofour research, of special interest is the aim, central to evolutionary thinking, oflinking the micro-economic behaviour of agents (firms, individuals) to the macro-outcomes of the economic landscape (as embodied in networks, clusters, agglom-erations, etc.). Such a construction has the ability to combine individual growthfactors that are seemingly unrelated into a coherent and organic whole, somethingthat relates to the central aim of the DYNREG study. Let us now look at the link inmore detail. According to Maskell and Malmberg (2007), when investigating evolutionaryprocesses of knowledge creation in a spatial setting, micro-level action providesparticularly interesting insights. Particularly useful is the idea that learning fromexperience, by trial and error or repetition (Arrow 1962; Scribner 1986), which isnow well-established in economic thinking, can lead to path-dependence andeventually stagnation or even lock-in (van Hayek 1960; Arthur 1994; Young1993). In this respect, cognitive psycholo ...