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The loss of manufacturing employment to lower cost economies has meant that countries like the UK have sought to promote innovation in areas such as biotechnology. The emergence of the ‘bioeconomy’, however, has been highly uneven, with concentrations of activity in certain countries and particular regions in those countries. In the UK, for example, there are four major concentrations of the bioeconomy. Each of these concentrations exhibit distinct patterns of knowledge and spatial inputs into the innovation process, meaning that it is important to consider the knowledge–space dynamic in and of each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the economy has globalized, it has also regionalized, which has led to the integration of different spaces across different scales. A number of theories contend that the endogenous assets of these locations provide them with the means to compete in this globalizing economy, especially in relation to knowledge- based sectors like biotechnology. Among these theories, the cluster concept stands out. However, there is little support for the arguments that local linkages are the central contributors to innovation. Extralocal linkages have also been highlighted, suggesting that other theories that account for these linkages may prove useful in the discussion of knowledge-based sectors, in general, and biotechnology, in particular. One such theory is the concept of global commodity chains, which explicitly concerns the interconnections within and across different geographic scales. As yet it has seldom been applied to the biotechnology industry. This article uses the approach to explore the U.K. biotechnology industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]