This book presents a new conception of industrial practice and firm behavior. It explains how the cultures that shape the practices of firms and the trajectories of regional and national economies are actually produced. The analysis shows how the internal and inter-firm organization of production, use of technologies, and the industrial knowledge underpinning these practices are strongly influenced by their social and institutional context.

• 1.: Institutions, Agency, and Industrial Practices


• 2.: Capital, Technology, and Economic Performance


• 3.: Proximity, Organization, and Culture


• 4.: Regional Cultures of Production


• 5.: Crisis in Machinery Building: The Roots of Germany's Economic Malaise?


• 6.: Tacit Knowledge in Geographical Context


• 7.: Geography, Learning, and Convergence


• Bibliography


• Index

Appointed to University of Toronto in 1983. Visiting appointments at the University of Oxford, University of California at Los Angeles, University College London, and the University of Wales, Cardiff. Appointed Professor II, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo in 2001.