Global Networks and Local Linkages (The Paradox of Cluster Development in an Open Economy)

This volume presents the final case studies in the Innovation Systems Research Network's (ISRN) five-year investigation of twenty-six industry clusters across Canada. Contributors describe clusters in Toronto, Sudbury, and the Okanagan and in biotechnology, tool and die making, and mining services. They argue that in attempting to craft policies that help existing clusters adjust to differences in institutional linkages, knowledge dimensions, and cluster growth, policy makers must account for historically rooted institutional dynamics and the influence of regional culture.

Contributors, who are members of the ISRN, a national project funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, include Allison Bramwell (University of Toronto), John N. H. Britton (University of Toronto), Charles H.Davis (Toronto Metropolitan University), Susan Fitzgibbon (Queen's University), Meric Gertler (University of Toronto), Caroline Hickton (Simon Fraser University), John Holmes (Queen's University), Astrid Jacobson (University of Calgary), Jeremy Karwandy (University of Saskatchewan), Cooper H. Langford (University of Calgary), Gerry Legare (University of Toronto), Nichola Lowe (University of North Carolina), Jen Nelles (University of Toronto), Tim Padmore (University of British Columbia), Julie Lynn Parchewski (University of Saskatchewan), Peter W.B. Phillips (University of Saskatchewan), Tara Procyshyn (University of Saskatchewan), David Robinson (Laurentian University), Tod Rutherford (Syracuse University), Camile D. Ryan (University of Saskatchewan), and Jaime Wood (University of Calgary).