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Countries differ significantly with regard to the location-specific contexts in which they are embedded. The aim of this paper is to extend the discussion on the effects of local and global innovation collaborations on the degree of novelty of innovation by considering this context. Our main question is: Does embeddedness in the developed or emerging country context affect the likelihood of benefiting from local or global linkages for innovations with higher novelty?\ud \ud The paper is based on data gathered through a survey of firms in the ICT sector in an emerging economy (India) context and from two Scandinavian countries (Sweden and Norway). The findings of this study show that global linkages do indeed impact the degree of novelty of innovation. However, country context does have a moderating effect. While the effect of global linkages is highly positive on the innovativeness of Scandinavian firms, for the Indian SMEs, the linkages that give novel innovations are the regional ones

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Knowledge-intensive services are seen to have an increased importance for learning and innovation activity in a more knowledge-based economy. This paper compares the relevance of two complementary approaches as analytical tools in studying the exchange of knowledge-intensive services in innovation processes. The first approach focuses on the importance of expert knowledge from companies in the KIBS (knowledge-intensive business services) sector as input in innovation processes. The other approach focuses on the role of knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA) in innovation processes. The latter approach regards a wider set of players as potentially important knowledge-intensive service providers than just KIBS firms, it focuses on knowledge exchange beyond market relations, and it emphasizes the mix and match of internal and external knowledgeintensive services. This paper analyses the relevance of the two approaches by studying the use of knowledge-intensive services in two Norwegian industries dominated by different knowledge bases, that is, the aquaculture and the software industry, respectively. Empirical studies in the two industries demonstrate that the KISA approach certainly brings new elements into the investigation of the role of knowledge-intensive services in innovation activity. The approach focuses on how knowledge exchange occurs (in static or dynamic ways), and how it relates to firms' own innovation processes. However, innovation studies can also benefit from differentiating more between different types of firms, for example, firms in different phases of their life cycle.

The extant literature suggests that a mutual dependency exists between head office location and the location of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in major cities and capital regions. This is often referred to as a joint head-office-corporate-service complex. However, few studies have looked into the functioning and outcomes of these complexes. How concentrated are KIBS and head offices in major cities? How important is geographical proximity in the knowledge interaction between head offices and KIBS? What are the actual outcomes of head office-KIBS relationships, especially as far as innovation is concerned? These issues are discussed by using empirical evidence from Norway. The empirical results indicate that geographical proximity in itself is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for successful relations between KIBS and head offices in cities. However, agglomeration in city regions can provide positive externalities for both parties. Other types of proximity, such as social and cognitive proximity, also play a vital role in the outcome of KIBS-client relations. There is therefore a certain degree of heterogeneity, but not all projects lead to profound learning and innovation in the actors in this complex. Copyright (c) 2007 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.