Recent contributions within the system of innovation approach are marked by an instrumentalism that views innovation as a predictable and standardized process that in most aspects counters theories and empirical observations stressing the multilevel, spontaneous and complex features of innovation. Informed by the relational turn within economic geography this paper develops an alternative analytical framework. We do this stepwise: first, by elaborating on how innovation was originally defined within the systems of innovation approach; second, by outlining a relational based analytical framework based on the concept of social fields; and, finally, by demonstrating how it has been applied.
Amin A. and Roberts J. ( 2008) Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice . Research Policy37: 353-369.
2.
Amin A. and Thrift N. ( 2007) Cultural-economy and cities. Progress in Human Geography31: 143-61.
3.
Balzat M. and Hanusch H. ( 2004) Recent trends in the research on national innovation systems . Journal of Evolutionary Economics14: 197-210.
4.
Bathelt H. and Glückler J. ( 2003) Toward a relational economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography3: 117-44.
5.
Bathelt H., Malmberg A., and Maskell P. ( 2004) Clusters and knowledge: Local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation. Progress in Human Geography28: 31-56.
6.
Bourdieu P. ( 1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
7.
Coe NM, Dicken P., and Hess M. ( 2008) Global production networks: Realizing the potential . Journal of Economic Geography8: 271-95.
8.
Cooke P. ( 2001) Regional innovation systems, clusters and the knowledge economy. Industrial and Corporate Change10: 945-74.
9.
Cooke P., Heidenreich M., and Braczyk HJ ( 2004) Regional Innovation System: The Role of Governances in a Globalized World. London: Routledge .
10.
de Bruijn P. and Lagendijk A. ( 2005) Regional innovation systems in the Lisbon strategy . European Planning Studies13: 1153-1172.
11.
DiMaggio PJ and Powell WW ( 1991) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. In Powell WW and DiMaggio PJ (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis . Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 63-82.
12.
Edquist C. ( 1997) Systems of innovation approaches: Their emergence and characteristics. In Edquist C (ed.) Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organisations . London: Pinter, 1-35.
13.
Enright M. ( 2003) Regional clusters: What we know and what we should know . In Bröcker J, Dohse D, and Soltwedel R (eds) Innovation Clusters and Interregional Competition . Berlin: Springer, 99-129.
14.
Fagerberg J. ( 2003) Schumpeter and the revival of evolutionary economics: An appraisal of the literature. Journal of Evolutionary Economics13: 125-59.
15.
Ffowcs-Williams I. ( 2004) Cluster development: Red light and green light . Paper prepared for ANZRSAI’s ‘Sustaining Regions ’, 24 May.
16.
Fløysand A. and Jakobsen S-E. ( 2002) Clusters, social fields and capabilities: Rules and restructuring in Norwegian fish processing clusters. International Studies in Management and Organisation31: 35-55.
17.
Fløysand A. and Jakobsen S-E. ( 2007) Commodification of rural places: A narrative of social fields, rural development, and football. Journal of Rural Studies23: 206-21.
18.
Fløysand A. and Lindkvist KB ( 2001) Globalisation, local capitalism and fishery communities in change. Marine Policy25: 113-21.
19.
Fløysand A. and Sæther A. ( 2007) Globalización, comunidades pesqueras y construcción de género: El caso de Muros (Galicia). Boletín de la Asociacion de Geograficos Españoles45: 31-48.
20.
Fløysand A. and Sjøholt P. ( 2007) Rural development and embeddedness: The importance of human relations for industrial restructuring in rural areas. Sociologia Ruralis47: 205-27.
21.
Fonseca J. ( 2002) Complexity and Innovation in Organizations. London: Routledge.
22.
Furman JL, Porter ME, and Stern S. ( 2002) The determinants of national innovation capacity . Research Policy31: 899-933.
23.
Giddens A. ( 1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press .
24.
Granovetter M. ( 1985) Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness . American Journal of Sociology91: 481-510.
25.
Grønhaug R. ( 1974) Micro-macro relations: Social organization in Antalya, Southern Turkey. Occasional Paper 7, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway.
26.
Grønhaug R. ( 1978) Scale as a variable in analysis: Field in social organisation in Herat, northwest Afghanistan. In Barth F (ed.) Scale and Social Organisation. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 78-121.
27.
Hägerstrand T. ( 1970) What about people in regional science? Papers of the Regional Science Association24: 7-21.
28.
Hess M. ( 2004) ‘Spatial’ relationships? Towards a reconceptualization of embeddedness. Progress in Human Geography28: 165-86.
Jakobsen SE, Gammelsæter H., and Fløysand A. (2009) The spatial embeddedness of professional football clubs in Norway. Soccer and Society10: 261-79.
31.
Jensen MB, Johnson B., Lorenz E., and Lundvall B.Å (2007) Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation. Research Policy36: 680-693.
32.
Laumann EO, Galskeiwicz L., and Marsden PV ( 1978) Community structures as interorganizational linkages . Annual Review of Sociology4: 455-484.
33.
Lave J. and Wenger E. ( 1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
Linton R. ( 1936) The Study of Man: An Introduction. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
35.
Lundvall BÅ ( 1992) Introduction. In Lundvall BÅ (ed.) Systems of Innovations. London: Pinter, 1-19.
36.
Lundvall B.Å (2007) National innovation systems - analytical concept and development tool. Industry and Innovation14(1): 95-119.
37.
Martin R. and Sunley P. ( 2007): Complexity thinking and evolutionary economic geography . Journal of Economic Geography7: 573-601.
38.
Nohria N. and Eccles RG ( 1992) Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action . Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
39.
Peck J. ( 2003) Fuzzy old world: A response to Markusen. Regional Studies37: 729-40.
40.
Polanyi K. ( 1944) The Great Transformation. The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
41.
Polt W., Rammer C., Gassler H., Schibany A., and Schartinger D. ( 2001) Benchmarking industry-science relations: The role of framework conditions. Science and Public Policy28: 247-58.
42.
Porter ME and Stern S. ( 2002) National innovation capacity. In Porter ME, Sachs JD, Cornelius PK, McArthur JW, and Schwab K (eds) World Economic Forum. The Global Competitiveness Report 2001-2002. New York: Oxford University Press, 102-119.
43.
Scott WR ( 1995) Institutions and Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
44.
Sölvell Ö., Lindqvist G., and Ketels C. ( 2003) The Cluster Initiative Greenbook. Stockholm: Bromma Tryck.
45.
Storper M. ( 1997) The Regional World. Territorial Development in a Global Economy. New York: Guilford .
46.
Sunley P. ( 2008) Relational economic geography: A partial understanding or a new paradigm? Economic Geography84: 1-26.
47.
Swyngedouw E. ( 2004) Globalisation or ‘glocalisation’? Networks, territories and rescaling. Cambridge Review of International Affairs17: 25-48.
48.
Tödtling F. and Trippl M. ( 2005) One size fits all? Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach. Research Policy34: 1203-1219.
49.
Uyarra E. ( 2010) What is evolutionary about ‘regional systems of innovation’? Implications for regional policy. Journal of Evolutionary Economics20: 115- 137.
50.
Yeung HW ( 2005) Rethinking relational economic geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers30: 37-51.
