Title: The geography of innovation in South Africa: a first cut

Authors: Jo Lorentzen

Addresses: Education, Science, and Skills Development, Human Sciences Research Council, 69–83 Plein Street, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

Abstract: The geography of innovation in the developing world is poorly understood, both because certain spatial economic data are difficult to access or do not exist at all and because the existing information is rarely submitted for analysis at subnational level, where the relevant literature would conceptually and empirically inform the research questions. This paper makes a contribution to addressing both shortcomings for the example of South Africa. It discusses how well productive and knowledge-based activities are integrated in the country|s provinces and analyses how relevant the geographic proximity between firms and other knowledge users or producers is for this relationship.

Keywords: regional innovation; agglomeration; proximity; knowledge producer-user interactions; inter-firm relationships; latecomer countries; South Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTLID.2009.023029

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2009 Vol.2 No.3, pp.210 - 229

Published online: 08 Feb 2009 *

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