ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the answers to two main questions. These are ‘Why and when does innovation take place?’ and ‘Why is it concentrated in some places rather than others?’ Answers to the first of these will be sought in Schumpeterian evolutionary economic theory. The rudiments of this rich vein will be outlined to provide an explanatory background that will be used to evaluate alternative answers to the second question. Explanations of the geography of innovation, which forms one of the central concerns of this book, will be summarised and evaluated. Elements of these different explanations will then be combined to form theoretical analyses of why innovation is especially concentrated in the five European cities studied here.
