Knowledge is considered to be an economic driver in today's economy. It has become a commodity, a resource that can be packed and transferred. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the scope, trends and major actors (firms, organizations, government, consultants, academia, etc.) in the development and use of methods to manage innovation in a knowledge‐driven economy. The paper identifies the main innovation management techniques (IMTs) aiming at the improvement of firm competitiveness by means of knowledge management. It will specifically focus on those IMTs for which knowledge is a relevant part of the innovation process. The research study, based on a survey at the European level, concludes that a knowledge‐driven economy affects the innovation process and approach. The traditional idea that innovation is based on research (technology‐push theory) and interaction between firms and other actors has been replaced by the current social network theory of innovation, where knowledge plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. Simultaneously, organizations in both public and private sectors have launched initiatives to develop methodologies and tools to support business innovation management. Higher education establishments, business schools and consulting companies are developing innovative and adequate methodologies and tools, while public authorities are designing and setting up education and training schemes aimed at disseminating best practices among all kinds of businesses.

Recent studies about clusters claim that firm-specific characteristics should be considered as central to the explanation of innovation This article contributes to this literature and explores the role of combinations of internal and relational resources to the explanation of innovation in clusters The results from 48 small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) located in one of the leading European ceramic tile clusters stress that a firm's strategy—understood as a combination of both internal and relational resources—is important, influences innovation and partially shapes the dynamics of clusters. The results highlight the role of a firm's internal resources as crucially important in the access to external knowledge, i.e. to absorption capacity. As such, the external resources in clusters are exploited and combined in different ways according to a firm's internal resources. In addition, evidence is presented of a synergistic effect from the interaction between a firm's internal and relational resources. These results support the idea that absorptive capacity is crucial to the effective exploitation of external know-how and to obtaining benefit from complementarities between internal and external resources. Neither distance nor embeddedness is sufficient to explain innovation in environments in which firms maintain frequent and multiple relationships.

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has been applied to territories, although academia has not frequently undertaken exploration of RBV applied to clusters in an empirical base. The goal of this paper aims at empirically translating RBV to the territory with a double objective. First, the work seeks to understand which are the cluster's resources and capabilities. Second, the paper evaluates whether a cluster's unique set of resources and capabilities could influence a cluster's performance. Research is applied to leading European ceramic tile clusters located in Spain (Castellon) and Italy (Emilia-Romagna). Comparing clusters in the same industry allows benchmarking and the metrics make more sense. Secondary data and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with managers from the R&D Institutes, institutional agents and Castellon (59) and Emilian (19) firms assess a cluster's resources and capabilities. The employed variables address skilled labour availability, social capital, linkages, business sophistication and network effects. In addition, and through the utilization of financial and productivity data the work analyses whether there are performance differences. Results indicate that clusters have a unique set of resources and capabilities and a certain performance level. On the whole, a cluster's unique set of resources and capabilities matter. The paper offers a methodological approach to tackle empirically the RBV application to clusters.

The objective of this article is to analyze the innovation patterns and drivers in culinary activities, especially in the haute cuisine segment. The main aim of this article is to provide an understanding of the innovation processes and context of haute cuisine and innovating chefs. The research is based on a survey of 50 chefs in eastern Spain who manage medium- and high-level restaurants, some of which are Michelin starred.