Beyond Production and Standards: Toward a Status Market Approach to Territorial Innovation and Knowledge Policy

MacNeill S. and Jeannerat H. Beyond production and standards: toward a status market approach to territorial innovation and knowledge policy, Regional Studies. Current theoretical and policy models of innovation are usually production based and give prominence to producer–supplier relations. Drawing on a socio-economic approach to markets, the paper reconsiders these established models in order to broaden the understanding of innovation and territorial knowledge dynamics. The premium segment sports cars innovated in the UK's West Midlands is examined and the production and standard market of the global automotive industry is contrasted with the status market in which new local innovation embed across specific supplier–producer and producer–consumer relations. A status innovation policy approach is finally proposed to address innovation in developed economies. © 2015 Regional Studies Association.