Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This handbook looks to provide academics and students with a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the phenomenon of innovation.
Innovation spans a number of fields within the social sciences and humanities: Management, Economics, Geography, Sociology, Politics, Psychology, and History. Consequently, the rapidly increasing body of literature on innovation is characterized by a multitude of perspectives based on, or cutting across, existing disciplines and specializations. Scholars of innovation can come from such diverse starting points that much of this literature can be missed, and so constructive dialogues missed.

The editors of The Oxford Handbook of Innovation have carefully selected and designed twenty-one contributions from leading academic experts within their particular field, each focusing on a specific aspect of innovation. These have been organized into four main sections, the first of which looks at the creation of innovations, with particular focus on firms and networks. Section Two provides an account of the wider systematic setting influencing innovation and the role of institutions and organizations in this context. Section Three explores some of the diversity in the working of innovation over time and across different sectors of the economy, and Section Four focuses on the consequences of innovation with respect to economic growth, international competitiveness, and employment.

An introductory overview, concluding remarks, and guide to further reading for each chapter, make this handbook a key introduction and vital reference work for researchers, academics, and advanced students of innovation.

About the Series
Oxford Handbooks in Business & Management bring together the world's leading scholars on the subject to discuss current research and the latest thinking in a range of interrelated topics including Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Public Management, International Business, and many others. Containing completely new essays with extensive referencing to further reading and key ideas, the volumes, in hardback or paperback, serve as both a thorough introduction to a topic and a useful desk reference for scholars and advanced students alike.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Figures (p. xii)
• List of Tables (p. xiii)
• List of Boxes (p. xv)
• List of Contributors (p. xvii)
• 1 Innovation: A Guide to the Literature (p. 1)
• Part I Innovation in the Making
• Introduction (p. 28)
• 2 The Innovative Firm (p. 29)
• 3 Networks of Innovators (p. 56)
• 4 Innovation Processes (p. 86)
• 5 Organizational Innovation (p. 115)
• 6 Measuring Innovation (p. 148)
• Part II The Systemic Nature of Innovation
• Introduction (p. 180)
• 7 Systems of Innovation: Perspectives and Challenges (p. 181)
• 8 Universities in National Innovation Systems (p. 209)
• 9 Finance and Innovation (p. 240)
• 10 Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights (p. 266)
• 11 The Geography of Innovation: Regional Innovation Systems (p. 291)
• 12 Globalization of Innovation: The Role of Multinational Enterprises (p. 318)
• Part III How Innovation Differs
• Introduction (p. 348)
• 13 Innovation through Time (p. 349)
• 14 Sectoral Systems: How and Why Innovation Differs across Sectors (p. 380)
• 15 Innovation in "Low-Tech" Industries (p. 407)
• 16 Innovation in Services (p. 433)
• 17 Innovation and Diffusion (p. 459)
• Part IV Innovation and Performance
• Introduction (p. 486)
• 18 Innovation and Economic Growth (p. 487)
• 19 Innovation and Catching-up (p. 514)
• 20 Innovation and Competitiveness (p. 543)
• 21 Innovation and Employment (p. 568)
• 22 Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (p. 599)