CFP: Special Issue Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais: Coopetition and innovation in clusters: The role of space

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

From: João Carlos Correia Leitão [mailto:jleitao71 at gmail.com] 
Date: Fri 30 Aug 2013 12:56


Call for Papers (CfP)
 
Special Issue:
 
COOPETITION AND INNOVATION IN CLUSTERS: THE ROLE OF SPACE
 
Deadline for full papers submission: April 30, 2014
 
Supervising Editor:
Pedro Ramos, University of Coimbra
 
Guest Editors:
João Leitão, University of Beira Interior and CEG-IST, University of Lisbon
Rui Baptista, Brunel Business School, London and CEG-IST, University of Lisbon 
 
James Wilson, Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and Deusto Business School 
 
Saïd Yami, Université Montpellier 1 and KEDGE Business School, France 
 
 
Background and Purpose:
Research defines coopetition as a mix of cooperation and competition among firms oriented towards producing innovation and generating net value added or economic benefit. The importance of studying the determinants of firms' innovative behaviour based on those coopetition relationships has warranted increasing attention by scholars. However, the role played the space in this process has been neglected even as research on economic geography, clusters, entrepreneurship and innovation has become preeminent. This represents an opportunity for scholars, policy makers, entrepreneurs and practitioners to discuss the importance of space in determining the innovative behaviour of government, industry, higher education institutions (HEIs) and citizens in environments that mix competition and cooperation.
 
Despite the importance of the institutional and networks approaches explored in the literature, much remains unknown regarding the role of space in determining innovative activity and performance. Another gap found in the literature is related with clusters. Research is rich in suggesting reasons behind cluster emergence, but it fails to examine in detail the exact mechanisms behind it, namely, the role played by endogenous production factors (for example, human capital, social or relational capital, and knowledge) using a space lens. This gap may be addressed by linking coopetition, innovative behaviour and clusters. If agglomeration improves the quality of the match between government, firms, HEIs, and citizens, clusters should have enduring productivity and innovation advantages.
 
Research Questions:
 
To tackle this intriguing area of research, we invite contributions to the special issue of the Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais (RPER) on Innovation and Coopetition in Clusters: The Role of Space. The approach based on coopetition, innovation and space has considerable potential to generate original insights. For example:
 
(i)    Is cluster growth and success over time better ascribed to simple agglomeration effects, or to the complex coopetition effects originating from the relationships or networks established among government, industry, HEIs and citizens?

(ii) What is the role played by regional institutional platforms (e.g. regional governments; inter-municipal communities; city regions; intelligent cities; smart cities; and regional agencies) in fostering open innovation clusters?
 
(iii) How do spatial factors influence regional industrial concentration and productive specialisation? What is the role played by public policy in determining technological change at the regional level?
 
(iv) Does the lifecycle approach based on space, applies to the different stages of the clusters growth? 
 
(v)  Does space play a role in the human capital and knowledge concentration on cluster performance? Are there differences among manufacturing, service, and creative clusters?
 
(vi)  Does coopetition intensity impact the innovative behaviours of the agents that are engaged on clusters?
 
(vii) What is the impact of spatial organization on the promotion of qualified entrepreneurship? Are academic spinoffs more likely to grow in the context of open innovation clusters?
 
These topics for investigation open avenues for extending several approaches in the existing literature, namely institutional, networks, endogenous growth, and competition and coopetition, through the presentation of original contributions oriented to innovative, sustainable and intelligent (ISI) regions, taking into consideration the importance of space.
 
This innovative research can provide contributions for enhancing economic growth based on both endogenous production factors (e.g. human capital, social or relational capital, and knowledge) and agglomeration and/or spillover effects derived from spatial clusters. Our intent is to provide scholars interested in coopetition, innovation and clusters with a collection of rigorous and robust theory-building and theory-testing efforts that will pave the way to a new level of understanding of the role of space in determining R&D cooperation and innovation, at the clusters' level.
 
Deadline and Submission Instructions:

The deadline for full papers submission is April 30, 2014. To learn more about the Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais (RPER), including additional information on the submission process, please visit the RPER's website at:
 
http://www.apdr.pt/siterper/en/submeterEN.html
 
The full paper should be sent to the secretariat of the RPER: rper at apdr.pt
 
More Information:

To nominate a reviewer, volunteer to review, or obtain additional information, please contact:
 
(i)            The Managing Editor of the RPER:
-          Pedro Ramos, University of Coimbra (pnramos at fe.uc.pt)
 
(ii)          The special issue editors
- João Leitão, University of Beira Interior and CEG-IST, University of Lisbon (jleitao at ubi.pt)
- Rui Baptista, Brunel Business School, London and CEG-IST, University of Lisbon (rui.baptista at ist.utl.pt)
- James Wilson, Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and Deusto Business School (jwilson at orkestra.deusto.es)
- Saïd Yami, Université Montpellier 1 and KEDGE Business School, France (said.yami at univ-montp1.fr)
 
Relevant web site:
http://www.apdr.pt/siterper/en/homeen.html