Innovation and Sustainable Learning in Small Low-Tech Firms

This book is about how small firms in low-tech
sectors survive industrial restructuring. By looking
at the packaging industry in a high wage country such
as Denmark the book investigates the dynamic of the
process of innovation within industrial networks.
Contrary to the Schumpeterian approach to innovation
as a source of creative destruction, innovation in
these networks leads to sustainable construction of
advantages without jeopardizing the existence of
other firms. Sustainable learning is crucial to
innovation and firms success, but only if the two
conditions of access and willingness to share
knowledge are respected. In order to define the
dynamic of the learning processes and the sources of
innovation and knowledge, the book introduces a structural dynamic approach based on the analysis
of the interrelations between power structures,
learning processes and markets dynamics.

Autorentext

Lecturer (Associate Professor) in international political economyand innovation at the Department of Society and Globalization,Roskilde University, Denmark. He works as independent consultantfor international NGOs, the United Nations and the EuropeanCommission in the areas of international migration, innovationand local development.

Klappentext

This book is about how small firms in low-techsectors survive industrial restructuring. By lookingat the packaging industry in a high wage country suchas Denmark the book investigates the dynamic of theprocess of innovation within industrial networks.Contrary to the Schumpeterian approach to innovationas a source of creative destruction, innovation inthese networks leads to sustainable construction ofadvantages without jeopardizing the existence ofother firms. Sustainable learning is crucial toinnovation and firms' success, but only if the twoconditions of access and willingness to shareknowledge are respected. In order to define thedynamic of the learning processes and the sources ofinnovation and knowledge, the book introduces a'structural dynamic approach' based on the analysisof the interrelations between power structures,learning processes and markets dynamics.