List of Contributors. Preface. Acknowledgments. Part A: In Search of Conceptual Framework. 1. Local and Regional Systems of Innovation as Learning Socio-Economies; J. de la Mothe, G. Paquet. Part B: Conceptual Perspectives. 2. Calibrating the Learning Region; R. Florida. 3. Regional Systems of Innovation and the Blurred Firm; A. Saxenian. 4. Modeling Regional Innovation and Competitiveness; T. Padmore, H. Gibson. Part C: International and Inter-Regional Perspectives. 5. Knowledge-Based Industrial Clustering: International Comparisons; R. Voyer. 6. Contrasting U.S. Metropolitan Systems of Innovation; Z.J. Acs, et al. 7. Contrasting Regional Innovation Systems in Oxford and Cambridge; H.L. Smith, et al. 8. Telecoms in New Jersey: Spatial Determinants of Sectoral Investments; C. Wymbs. Part D: Perspectives on Canada's Local and Regional Systems of Innovation. 9. Innovation in Enterprises in British Columbia; J.A.D. Holbrook, L.P. Hughes. 10. How Do Small Firms Innovate in British Columbia? H.G. Schuetze. 11. The Dynamics of Regional Innovation in Ontario; M.S. Gertler, et al. 12. Canada's Technology Triangle; J. Roy. 13. The Chaudière-Apalaches System of Industrial Innovations; R. Landry, N. Amara. 14. Saint John, NB, as an Emerging Local System of Innovation; R. Nimijean. 15. Canadian Science Parks, Universities, and Regional Development; J. Doutriaux. PartE: Quo Vadis? 16. Some Lessons and Challenges for Model Builders, Data Gatherers and Other Tribes; J. de la Mothe, G. Paquet. Index.

In an era of intense globalization, the critical role of the region as a center for economic development has sometimes been overlooked. Moreover, innovation is increasingly being recognized as being a critical driver of economic growth and development. However, innovation is no longer being seen as a function of research and development; nor is R&D being seen as being sufficient for the creation of technology-intensive industries and the valuable economic spillovers that result in high value-added jobs and exports. Indeed, much more than ever before, it is the combination of factors that contributes to innovation - ranging over skills, finance, production, user-producer linkages, the capacity of organizations to learn, and multilayered government policies - that make local regions the favorites of fortune.
Using an evolutionary economic perspective, and drawing on a range of disciplines and accomplished scholars, Local and Regional Systems of Innovation explores important issues at a conceptual, methodological and comparative level concerning how successful locations actually construct their comparative advantage.