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Geographies of Growth: Comparing Oxfordshire, a Core High-Tech Region in the UK, with an Emerging High-Tech Region—The Centro of Portugal

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Cooperative and Networking Strategies in Small Business

Part of the book series: Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management ((ITKM))

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Abstract

This chapter reports on a comparative project comparing the evolution of the Oxfordshire high-tech economy with a newer and much smaller high-tech region, the Centro of Portugal. Previous research on Oxfordshire has been mainly qualitative. This new study using quantitative data allows insights into what makes regions distinctive, how the performance of regions with some similar and some different attributes differ, and what might contribute to or inhibit their potential growth trajectories. The conceptual framework for the study is drawn from the ‘regional triple-helix spaces’ (The triple helix: University–industry–government innovation in action. Engineering, Routledge, p. 164, 2008) and the regional innovation systems concept (Environ Plan A 30:1563–1584, 1998). The two regions compared are very different in stages of development. The nature of entrepreneurship and innovation in the two regions is explored as well is responses to the growth of that activity by the local triple-helix actors.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Oxfordshire Data Observatory for their excellent collaboration and immediate data availability. A strong appreciation to Dr. Alexandra Rodrigues, Director of Services of the Regional Development on CCDRC—Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of Centro, for the kindness for having received us and shared information. A very special word of thanks to Mr. Jorge Figueira, Head of the Technology Transfer Office at the University of Coimbra, for his excellent framing of INOVC—regional innovation ecosystem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco and NECE–Reserch Unit, Castelo Branco, Portugal

    Luís Farinha

  2. University of Beira Interior and NECE–Reserch Unit, Covilhã, Portugal

    João J. Ferreira

  3. Birkbeck, University of London & Oxfordshire Observatory, Oxford University, UK

    Helen Lawton Smith

  4. Centre for Innovation Management Research (CIMR), Birkbeck College, University of London, Oxfordshire Observatory, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

    Saverio Romeo

Authors
  1. Luís Farinha
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  2. João J. Ferreira
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  3. Helen Lawton Smith
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  4. Saverio Romeo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luís Farinha .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Organizacón de Empresas, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Marta Peris-Ortiz

  2. Department of Management and Economics, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

    João J. Ferreira

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Farinha, L., Ferreira, J.J., Smith, H.L., Romeo, S. (2017). Geographies of Growth: Comparing Oxfordshire, a Core High-Tech Region in the UK, with an Emerging High-Tech Region—The Centro of Portugal. In: Peris-Ortiz, M., Ferreira, J. (eds) Cooperative and Networking Strategies in Small Business. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44509-0_8

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