The paper focuses on cluster policies with particular attention to the role of R&D collaborative incentives in the structuring of knowledge networks in clusters. We disentangle the main network failures in regional innovation systems, and discuss the selection procedures designed by policy makers to enhance the production of innovation outputs. We draw evidence from the French Aerospace Valley cluster from 2006 to 2015. The empirical analysis relies on a dataset of 248 granted research consortia, from which we build 4-cohorts knowledge networks enable us evidencing the evolving structural properties of the cluster over time. We suggest avoiding the bias and limitations of 1 and 2-mode network analysis by developing an original placebased network methodology that emphasizes on structural equivalence and groups behaviors. We discuss the results focusing on the convergence degree between the network statistical findings and the policy makers' objectives. Finally, the methodology allows us identifying who are the agents of the structural and technological changes observed during the period.

A relevant topic investigated in ‘Local Agro-Food Systems’ studies (LAFS) is the key role of collective action in the dissemination of innovations and knowledge aimed at the organization of quality on a local scale. The scope of this article deals with the methodological tools for typifying the relationships made, in LAFS hosting a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), between the relational social capital and the differential quality of firms. The objective of this work is to categorize the agro-industrial firms into hierarchies for implementing rural development policies, with respect to their technical and managerial advice relationships and their score achieved in terms of product and process quality. The study takes into account the LAFS of “Estepa” and “Sierra de Segura”, Andalusia (S Spain), corresponding to two important olive oil PDOs. The methodological approach comprises, firstly, the elaboration of a quality synthetic indicator on processes and products of the mills. Secondly, social network analysis is applied to the technical/managerial advice networks of the mills. Thirdly, a mill typology was established by means of factor analysis which employs quality and relational indicators. It is proved that the Regulatory Boards, as well as the second-step cooperatives, can assume a role of integrating poles with respect to the collective action developed in the LAFS, particularly in terms of dissemination of knowledge and innovations, which enhances the process and product quality of local firms. The existence of networks is a necessary condition to improve and homogenize the quality in a diffuse local agro-food structure.

This article presents a detailed analysis of how liquid money market instruments—sterling bills of exchange—were produced during the first globalization. We rely on a unique dataset that reports systematic information on all 23,493 bills re‐discounted by the Bank of England in the year 1906. Using descriptive statistics and network analysis, we reconstruct the complete network of linkages between agents involved in the origination and distribution of these bills. Our analysis reveals the truly global nature of the London bill market before the First World War and underscores the crucial role played by London intermediaries (acceptors and discounters) in overcoming information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders on this market. The complex industrial organization of the London money market ensured that risky private debts could be transformed into extremely liquid and safe monetary instruments traded throughout the global financial system.