Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
18
Rise of Megalopolis as a Mega Knowledge
Region: Interactions of Innovations
in Transport, Information, Production,
and Organizations
T.R. Lakshmanan, William P. Anderson, and Yena Song
Abstract
This chapter argues that the passage of the Megalopolis from a declining
industrial economy to a Mega Knowledge Region in the last three decades has
been made possible by a
four-part 'Knowledge Infrastructure'
: The first two
components of (a)
Transport and
(b)
Information and Communication Infra-
structure (ICT)
are general purpose technologies which
physically link
and
provide
access
(at low and declining costs) for economic actors in a liberalized
global economy, promoting economic structural changes. The passage to the
Knowledge Economy requires, in addition, two other components of the 'knowl-
edge infrastructure', namely (c) innovations in
production and service
technologies that nurture and commercialize new Industrial products and
operations and the structural evolution towards a networked Knowledge-
Intensive Service Economy.
The final component (d) is a set of
Institutional
Innovations
—which support
physical, relational and institutional proximity
among far-flung economic agents—thereby promoting
new knowledge and
value generation
in enterprises in the Megalopolis. The Boston metropolis has
arrested its decline, reinventing itself as an entrepreneurial knowledge economy,
focusing on knowledge-intensive production and services—Biotechnology,
Scientific instruments, Software, Finance services, Producer services, Medical
and Educational services—achieving this remarkable reinvention by building on
its
vast stocks and variety of knowledge assets, networking opportunities, rivalry
