Cooperation, Clusters, and Knowledge Transfer — Universities and Firms Towards Regional Competitiveness

Cooperation and clusters have become the guiding paradigms for explaining and promoting regional competitiveness, but the cooperation process between firms and universities and the transfer of knowledge in guiding and nurturing regional competitiveness has received relatively little attention. This book strives to fill this gap in highlighting the connection between inter-firm cooperation in regional clusters, innovation and regional networks, and the role of universities in them . It goes beyond the traditional economic approach of clusters and includes ‘soft factors’ in the explanation of regional competitiveness, and connects the literature on clusters to the literature of learning and knowledge creation as sources of regional competitiveness. It aims to foster an international and interdisciplinary exchange of perspectives by presenting current developments, case studies, best practices as well as new integrated theoretical approaches and applications.

Joao J. Ferreira (PhD in Management) is associate professor in the Department of Management and Economics of the University of Beira Interior (Portugal) and is a research member of NECE – Research Centre in Business Sciences. He received his PhD in 2004 and was appointed associate professor in 2012. His research interests include: strategy, competitiveness and entrepreneurship. He is Editor and Reviewer Board of some International Journals and he is author of some books and he has published extensively in a variety of leading journals.Mario L. Raposo (PhD in Management) is Full Professor in the Department of Management and Economics at the University of Beira Interior – Portugal. He is the scientific coordinator of NECE - Research Centre in Business Sciences. In the present belongs to the group of evaluators of management courses in Portugal. His research interests include: marketing, entrepreneurship, innovation, competitiveness and education. He has author or co-author of various books and papers published in several international journals and act as Reviewer Board of some International Journals. Roel Rutten is assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Tilburg University, the Netherlands and visiting fellow in the Newcastle University Business School, United Kingdom. His research focuses on networks and innovation, organizational learning and knowledge creation and on the spatial dimension of innovation. Some of his recent publications address to role of socio-cultural diversity with regard to innovation. Rutten has published extensively in leading journals in his field and has co-authored various book and book chapters for prestigious international publishers.Attila Varga is Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pecs, Hungary. He holds a Ph.D. from West Virginia University, USA. His research interest includes: regional growth, regional economic development policy, regional innovation systems, the economics of technological change and policy impact modelling. Professor Varga has published over sixty scholarly articles and book chapters in English and Hungarian. His papers appeared (among others) in the Journal of Regional Science, the Journal of Urban Economics, Papers in Regional Science, Regional Studies and Research Policy. He authored and edited five international books and he is also a referee for several major international journals of regional economics and technological change. He is editor of Regional Studies.