This article investigates the role played by geography in the promotion of innovation. In order to examine these issues we employ empirical data from Finland in order to test the extent to which the variety and nature of face-to-face contacts affects the innovation performance of the firm. In addition, we then also control for the geographical mobility of the labour employed by the firm. This allows us to identify the different roles that the geography of knowledge spillovers and exchanges and the geography of labour markets play in the innovation process. Copyright RSAI 2005.

No abstract

Innovation, Labor, Cooperation, R&D, O31, J60, L26,

The Oulu region, a globally recognized hub of mobile technology development in Northern Finland, provides a textbook example of how the various features of an innovation ecosystem can cause serious problems for regional development when a region faces a shock. The Oulu region is also an interesting example of how the effects of shock can be alleviated through creative actions and effective regional policy. In this paper, we develop a framework for analysing resilience using creativeness as the key element. We contribute to the literature by showing how this framework can be used in the operation and management of the regions hit by creative destruction types of shocks. We argue that the dynamic process that Oulu has gone through, in which obsolete and unproductive business activities have been replaced by new fields of technology and knowledge, can clearly be compared in many ways with Schumpeter's description of "creative destruction." We call this dynamic process creative resilience. We identify three elements as the core of creative resilience; knowledge creation, entrepreneurship and community spirit. Our paper will show how they materialized in the Oulu region.