Networking Regionalised Innovative Labour Markets

A map which shows where innovation is clustered worldwide is also a map of the location of the highly skilled and talented labour. New technologies, their creative applications or synergy across different areas of scientific research or technology development always create opportunities for the employment of particularly creative labour. This book explores the kinds of institutions and structures which need to exist to make sure that such skills are both offered and employed in particular ‘islands of innovation’.

Networking Regionalised Innovative Labour Markets illustrates the theme of how existing concentrations of skills in scientific, technological and managerial elites are reinforced through inter-regional mobility using exemplars from a range of countries and regions. These include the US, UK, Italy, Germany, and Central and Eastern Europe.

The book’s originality lies in its in-depth assessments of the factors associated with the extent to which some regions hold their positions in networked islands of innovation. It is shown that those islands of innovation that attract highly skilled workers from abroad, particularly those from foreign islands of innovation, perform better for example in the US, Italy and the UK. In contrast, even the most innovative Czech regions tend to lose the highly skilled workers vis-a-vis the most innovative regions of the world, mainly to regions in the USA.

Ulrich Hilpert is Professor and Chair of Comparative Government in the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.

Helen Lawton Smith is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.