Knowledge- Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low- Tech industries

Abstract

Knowledge- Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low- Tech industries Edited by Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen and Isabel Schwinge. Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK. Northampton, MA, USA. (2014) 249 pages, hardback, $120.00Despite their minimal application of research and development, industries such as manufacturing, food, and publishing occupy an important role in production expansion and employment opportunities. The editors of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship (KIE) in Low- Tech Industries point out the alarming gap that characterizes today's research in regard to industrial innovation and transformation. They purport that KIE activities are essential in the comprehensive understanding of the variable factors that may lead to innovations and changes in the industrial sectors, which would ultimately guide policy formation.The book emphasizes on KIE role in exploring innovations and opportunities that ultimately will be appreciated by consumers and would lead to resource mobilization to capitalize on the economic benefit. KIE activities can provide a science based and organized framework to produce variety of innovations that are necessary for today's "knowledge economy." The book points out the roots of limited role of KIE activities in low tech-industries. It clarifies that industries such as clothing and food production have standardized processes that are based on rooted knowledge which accumulate incrementally through generational evolution. The slow but progressive process leads to mature industries characterized by guaranteed efficiency, and subsequently promises good returns on the capital investment in these traditional sectors. Recently, as a result of a globalized economy, these traditional sectors are faced by fierce competition from markets that enjoy cheap labor; subsequently, they refine their strategies around professional managers who can optimize, rationalize and streamline production line instead of investing resources in research and development to explore new potentials and opportunities.Many KIE proponents perceive low-tech industries as stagnant sectors, which have limited "valuable opportunities." The editors of this book reject the stagnant characterization that casted low tech industries and suggest a larger role of KIE activities in response to the mounting international market pressure. They argue that low-tech industries' traditional responses to competition by adopting managerial strategies geared toward cost reduction and to the optimization of routine practices, although necessary, are insufficient to compensate for a shrinking operational return. Subsequently, they advocate that low-tech industries are in need for a reflective evaluation that penetrates through established industries' practices. Such a process will produce the necessary innovative breakthroughs that can direct stagnant industries away from old traditional designs that failed in the new challenging global market.To advance their stance the editors incorporate variable quantitative and qualitative methods in order to explain the role of KIE activities in low and moderately low technology (LMT) sectors and/or firms. For example, in chapter two, a quantitative analysis of a large scale survey points out the different distinctive KIE characteristics as they were applied on LMT sectors; subsequently, the study illustrates how KIE can be of benefit for managers, policy makers and scholars as they explore the "high potential "of this form of entrepreneurship. In the third chapter, the editors present a case study that demonstrates a detailed KIE process in LMT sectors in different European countries. The study focuses on the similarities and differences of these patterns and how they affect firm choices and directions in order to point out the existing opportunities for KIE in LMT. In the following chapter, the editors demonstrate how KIE process enhances many European traditional industries competitiveness and promotes their growth despite the rising competition as a result of the growing low- wage economies. …