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- Summer 2020
- Article
Tech Clusters
By: William R. Kerr and Frederic Robert-Nicoud
Tech clusters like Silicon Valley play a central role for modern innovation, business competitiveness, and economic performance. This paper reviews what constitutes a tech cluster, how they function internally, and the degree to which policy makers can purposefully...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Tech Clusters
By: William R. Kerr and Frederic Robert-Nicoud
Tech clusters like Silicon Valley play a central role for modern innovation, business competitiveness, and economic performance. This paper reviews what constitutes a tech cluster, how they function internally, and the degree to which policy makers can purposefully...
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- September 2018
- Article
Knowledge Integrators and the Survival of Manufacturing Clusters
By: Giulio Buciuni and Gary P. Pisano
Over the past two decades, the greater prevalence of global supply chains has had contrasting effects on Western manufacturing clusters. While some of them dwindled, others proved resilient. Contributing to the recent literature on co-located clusters and clusters'...
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- Article
Navigating Talent Hot Spots
By: William R. Kerr
Innovation clusters like San Francisco and Boston have long had an outsize impact on the global economy, and their influence keeps growing. In 2017, for instance, America’s ten largest tech hubs accounted for 58% of U.S. patents. Globally, cities such as Tokyo, Paris,...
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- 2018
- Working Paper
Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century
By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva
This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the United States over the 20th century. We use three new datasets: a panel of the universe of inventors who patent since 1920; a dataset of the employment, location, and patents of firms...
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- 2018
- Chapter
The Logic of Agglomeration
By: Gilles Duranton and William R. Kerr
This review discusses frontier topics in economic geography as they relate to firms and agglomeration economies. We focus on areas where empirical research is scarce but possible. We first outline a conceptual framework for city formation that allows us to contemplate...
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Keywords:
Agglomeration;
Clusters;
Innovation;
Cities;
Industry Clusters;
City;
Innovation and Invention
- Article
Creating Ecotourism in Costa Rica, 1970–2000
By: G. Jones and Andrew Spadafora
Between the 1970s and the 2000s, Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This article argues that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a...
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- March 2017
- Teaching Plan
The Maine Food Cluster Project
By: Karen Mills
The case introduces Craig Denekas, the head of the Libra Foundation, an unusual, private foundation based in Maine, which owns three locally based food companies. Denekas has initiated a project to explore how to grow the food sector in Maine, benefiting not only...
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- December 2016 (Revised December 2018)
- Case
From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem
By: Elie Ofek and Margot Eiran
In June 2016, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, wrestled with how to sustain Israel’s strong innovation track record and the country’s reputation as the “startup nation.” Despite the economic miracle the country had wrought since its founding, he...
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Keywords:
Israel;
Israeli Start-up Nation;
Innovation Economy;
Entrepreneurial Mindset;
Scaling-up;
Unicorns;
Innovation Clusters;
High-tech;
Innovation Management;
Multinational Corporation R＆D Centers;
Social Equality;
Two-tier Economy;
Liberalizing An Economy;
Foreign Investment;
Military Service;
Quality Of Human Capital;
Socioeconomic Gaps;
Labor Force Participation;
Government Initiatives;
Innovation and Management;
Entrepreneurship;
Venture Capital;
Business Startups;
Government and Politics;
Economy;
Equality and Inequality;
Education;
Resource Allocation;
Globalization;
Israel
- 2015
- Working Paper
The Logic of Agglomeration
By: Gilles Duranton and William R. Kerr
This review discusses frontier topics in economic geography as they relate to firms and agglomeration economies. We focus on areas where empirical research is scarce but possible. We first outline a conceptual framework for city formation that allows us to contemplate...
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Keywords:
Agglomeration;
Clusters;
Cities;
Innovation;
Industry Clusters;
City;
Innovation and Invention
- Article
What to Know About Locating in a Cluster
By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai
As a study of two industry clusters in Denmark shows, factors that can make clusters attractive—easy people movement and knowledge spillovers—can also make it harder for individual companies to retain proprietary knowledge.
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Keywords:
Clusters;
Clustering;
Competitiveness;
Life Sciences;
Telecommunications;
Science-based;
Research And Development;
Industry Clusters;
Research;
Innovation Strategy;
Innovation and Management;
Geographic Location;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
Biotechnology Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Denmark
- 2015
- Chapter
Agglomeration and Innovation
By: Gerald Carlino and William R. Kerr
This chapter reviews academic research on the connections between agglomeration and innovation. We first describe the conceptual distinctions between invention and innovation. We then describe how these factors are frequently measured in the data and some resulting...
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- December 2014
- Article
Clusters, Convergence, and Economic Performance
By: Mercedes Delgado, Michael E. Porter and Scott Stern
This paper evaluates the role of regional cluster composition in regional industry performance. On the one hand, diminishing returns to specialization in a location can result in a convergence effect: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be declining in...
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- Summer 2014
- Article
Taiwan's PC Industry, 1976–2010: The Evolution of Organizational Capabilities
By: Howard H. Yu and Willy C. Shih
The stellar growth of Taiwan's personal computer (PC) industry over the past three decades represents a paradox. Participating in the global production system, local firms in Taiwan grew in association with established firms in the West. Despite their technical...
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Keywords:
Personal Computer;
PC;
PC Industry;
Taiwan PC Industry;
Taiwan PC Manufacturers;
Innovation and Invention;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Growth and Development;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Industry Clusters;
Industry Growth;
Industry Structures;
Information Technology;
Technological Innovation;
Mobile Technology;
Information Technology Industry;
Taiwan
- 2014
- Working Paper
The Organizational and Geographic Drivers of Absorptive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical R&D Laboratories
By: Francesca Lazzeri and Gary P. Pisano
Scholars and practitioners alike now recognize that a firm's capacity to assimilate and use know-how from external sources—what Cohen and Levinthal (1990) called "absorptive capacity"—plays a central role in innovation performance. In recent years, a common strategy...
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- 2014
- Chapter
Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
By: Aaron Chatterji, Edward Glaeser and William R. Kerr
This chapter reviews recent academic work on the spatial concentration of entrepreneurship and innovation in the United States. We discuss rationales for the agglomeration of these activities and the economic consequences of clusters. We identify and discuss policies...
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- 11 Mar 2014
- Other Presentation
The Looming Challenge of U.S. Competitiveness
Professor Porter evaluated US competitiveness and its implications for Philadelphia. Host Dr. Mercedes Delgado, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management within the Fox School of Business, is a co-researcher on Professor Porter's work on innovation clusters and...
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- 11 Mar 2014
- Interview
The Looming Challenges of US Competitiveness: Implications for Philadelphia
The third installment of the Fox School's Innovation Leadership Speaker Series featured Professor Michael E. Porter, William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School. Dr. Porter addressed the factors driving innovation and competitiveness in a given...
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- September 2013 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
PAREXEL International Corp.: Adjusting the Business Model to Changing Six Factors
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred
Through the lens of biopharmaceutical contract research organization (CRO) PAREXEL, this case traces the evolution of the firm as it reinvents itself in response to the transformation of the CRO sector from a small, secondary cluster of firms into a major player with...
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- 2013
- Working Paper
Clusters and the New Growth Path for Europe
By: Christian Ketels and Sergiy Protsiv
This paper outlines elements of a conceptual framework that clarifies the role that clusters play relative to government policies and actions of individual companies in supporting the emergence of "High Road" strategies that lead to better New Growth Path–related...
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