ABSTRACT
Innovation - the process of obtaining, understanding, applying, transforming, managing and transferring knowledge - is a result of human collaboration, but it has become an increasingly complex process, with a growing number of interacting parties involved. Lack of innovation is not necessarily caused by lack of technology or lack of will to innovate, but often by social and cultural forces that jeopardize the cognitive processes and prevent potential innovation. This book focuses on the rule of social capital in the process of innovation: the social networks and the norms; values and attitudes (such as trust) of the actors; social capital as both bonding and bridging links between actors; and social capital as a feature at all spatial levels, from the single inventor to the transnational corporation. Contributors from a wide variety of countries and disciplines explore the cultural framework of innovation through empirics, case studies and examination of conceptual and methodological dilemmas.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |21 pages
Introduction
part |78 pages
The Cultural and Cognitive Framework of Innovation
part |58 pages
Innovation and Social Capital
chapter 5|23 pages
National and Regional Innovation Capacity Through the Lens of Social Capital
part |50 pages
Case Studies
chapter 8|24 pages
Independent Inventors and their Position in the National/Regional Innovation System
chapter 9|24 pages
“Individuals” Networks and Regional Renewal
part |5 pages
Discussion and Conclusion