Technology Transfer and Industrial Change in Europe

In the 1990s considerable academic and policy interest was directed to the nature and outcomes of links between industry and public sector research. Industry throughout the industrialized world is exhorted by government to tap into technological resources in universities and national laboratories which are beyond the scope of firms’ capacity to generate. This book examines how a range of geographical, social, economic and political factors regulate interaction, using evidence from interviews with firms, academics and industry organizations in a technologically dynamic industry (electronic components) and that in a traditional industry (flow measurement) in the UK, France and Belgium. The book, particularly in Erik Swyngedouw’s chapter, provides theoretical insights into the processes leading to an increasing, but by no means universal, trend of externalization of innovation. The flow of information between industry and national laboratories and universities is usually seen in terms of transfer out of universities. In reality, what is increasingly happening is that ideas and problems of industry are also transferred into the science base. This has important implications for the control and direction of scientific research.