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This chapter explores the interrelationship between the concept of geographic proximity and the more relational concepts of networks and innovation systems from the perspective of university-industry linkages. It focuses on linkages that are knowledge-based, and draws specifically on an analysis of the linkages universities form with firms in knowledge-intensive business service sectors (KIBS). Its arguments and conclusions draw upon both an in-depth critique of the key literature and an empirical analysis of the effects of different locational environments on the spatiality of the linkages formed between universities and KIBS firms. The key results of the study indicate the following: urban KIBS firms are generally located in much more competitive environments; urban KIBS firms tend to develop collaborative linkages with universities in much closer proximity than their rural counterparts; organisational proximity does not differ across firm types; and urban KIBS firms have different partner selection criteria to their rural counterparts.

While still in its infancy, the concept of the entrepreneurial ecosystem introduces a number of external factors that influence the new venture creation process, highlighting the fact that this process can involve a myriad of interdependent actors and environmental factors. While this may be a useful development, a lack of clarity as to its extent and make up has led to criticism that it is conceptually ad hoc. In order to address this criticism and contribute to this debate, this chapter draws on Giddens’ structuration approach to build a theoretical framework that captures and incorporates the co-constructed and co-evolutionary nature of entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as highlighting the co-evolution of agents and structures, and drawing attention to the temporal and spatial dimensions of the ecosystem dynamics. We suggest that this lens could be a useful theoretical tool for considering the dynamics of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convention) has established world benchmarks for the conduct and management of fisheries. It is often used as an exemplar of fisheries ‘best practice’. The Convention is part of the Antarctic Treaty System, and is therefore not established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, nor is it part of the United Nations treaty system. This chapter explores the origins of the CAMLR Convention as direct consequence of the deliberations of the Antarctic Treaty Parties. The Convention stands apart from agreements that establish Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) in that its purpose is conservation, not the sustainable harvesting of fish. We conclude that a purposive, objective, and plain reading of the Convention, a detailed understanding of its genesis, and the practice of CCAMLR itself, all demonstrate that the Convention is a conservation instrument which, inter alia, provides for the regulation of fisheries.