Building sustainable competitive advantage from knowledge in the region: The industrial enzymes industry

This paper analyses the foundations of regional knowledge and its long-term impact on the region's companies' and how a particular knowledge has developed an ability to stay competitive within a specific technological field. The case illustrates how the Copenhagen region has been able to develop a dominating position in the global market for industrial enzymes from 1870–2004. The case of industrial enzymes shows how a region has been able to build sustainable competitive advantages from its distinctive competencies. This is done through a mixture of outsourcing and in sourcing of competencies, knowledge and technologies from other regions in a ramified set of interacting networks.