It is a general understanding that the advanced economies are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation into knowledge-based societies. There is a firm belief that this is based on the development of high-tech industries. Correspondingly, in this scenario low-tech sectors appear to be less important. A critique of this widely held belief is the starting point of this book. It is often overlooked that many of the current innovation activities are linked to developments inside the realm of low-tech. Thus the general objective of the book is to contribute to a discussion concerning the relevance of low-tech industries for industrial innovativeness in the emerging knowledge economy.Providing examples of both theoretical and empirical research in this area, "Innovation in Low-tech Firms and Industries" will be of great interest to postgraduate students and academic researchers in innovation studies. It will also appeal to policy makers in the field of innovation policy as well as industrial economists and sociologists interested in traditional industries in advanced economies.

人们普遍认为，发达经济体目前正在经历向知识型社会的根本转型。人们坚信，这是建立在发展高科技产业的基础上的。相应地，在这种情况下，低技术部门似乎不那么重要。这本书的出发点是对这一普遍持有的信念的批判。人们经常忽视，当前的许多创新活动都与低技术领域内的发展有关。因此，本书的总体目标是促进对新兴知识经济中低技术产业与产业创新相关性的讨论。提供了理论和实践的示例这一领域的实证研究，“低技术企业和产业的创新”将引起研究生和创新研究学术研究人员的极大兴趣。它还将吸引创新政策领域的决策者以及对发达经济体传统产业感兴趣的产业经济学家和社会学家。