ABSTRACT
While scientific findings and new ideas about applications or creative minds are not bound to particular regions or territories, one can also discern a clear tendency of the concentration of innovative individuals, research-based enterprises and high-tech firms. There is also a concentration of innovative labour at a small number of clearly identifiable regions and locations. The close relationship between leading-edge scientific research, outstanding academic institutions and high-technology innovation demands very specific conditions and follows very particular paths of development. Such processes demand highly innovative labour, collaboration and an exchange of ideas and competences, which refer to a particular region’s profile in scientific research and technology and a particular stock of innovative knowledge. Thus, scientific findings and new ideas about applications develop a close relationship to regions and locations; since they demand particular situations, they can be generated only at a small number of regions and locations.
