Objective:

The main focus of this workshop is on the relationship between sectoral and local systems of innovation and the question whether and how this relationship changes while the sector develops over time.

Several approaches describe sectoral dynamics during different stages of development. As one line of reasoning, the industry life cycle approach compares sectoral change to the product life cycle. Two aspects are distinguished: the development of an industry can be described by a) the number of firms, employees, turnover and chances of survival and b) the stock and diversity of knowledge and competencies in a sector. Both dimensions interact and trigger the evolution of the respective industry. At the same time they also affect the basic conditions for innovations in the sector. Thus, during the development of the sector the firms as well as other organisations have to adapt their innovative activities to these changing conditions. This comprises the internal as well as the external organisation of innovation activities. An important element in the external organisation of innovation and knowledge transfer processes are the local systems the firms are embedded in. Such local systems of innovation can be seen as a multitude of different interacting agents, which in principle pursue one common objective, innovative success. To pursue this they run research projects interactively expecting that a successful innovation network is more than the sum of its parts. But, as described above, since the conditions for innovations in the sectors change over time, the actors in the local systems also have to adapt their innovation activities on the local level including their interactive and networking activities. Thus, the question derives how the likelihood of emergence, the structure and the processes related to local networks change over time in response to the development of the sector.

The intention of the workshop is to gather theoretical and empirical contributions from different fields addressing, e.g. the following questions:

• How are sectoral systems of innovation changing during the development of the sector? Which elements and mechanisms are persistent and which change?
• Is their a systematic interaction between sectoral and local systems of innovation?
• Do local / regional innovation systems change and adapt to peculiar needs of the locally dominant sectors and if yes, how do they change?
• How does the performance of firms change with the development of sectors based on their specific location, e.g. inside or outside industrial clusters?

Deadlines:

• Abstract submission: February 17, 2008
• Papers/notes acceptance: February 29, 2008
• Submission of final paper: May 1, 2008

Scientific Committee:

• Hariolf Grupp, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
• Dirk Fornahl, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
• Thomas Brenner, Philipps University Marburg
• Uwe Cantner, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Holger Graf, Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Travel and accommodation costs of the participants will be covered according to standard DIME arrangements for one author per paper from DIME-partners and for invited speakers.

Submissions:

Please send extended abstracts (max. 1,000 words) and contact details to dirk.fornahl@kit.edu and specify whether you are eligible for funding by DIME.