| Summary: | The importance of innovation for competitiveness and economic development forms an important topic in current economic geography and related fields. At present, many authors are of the opinion that diverse networks of relations, connecting sources of competitiveness at different spatial levels are vital to a firm's competitiveness. With this thesis I hope to contribute to the understanding of the geography of relations crucial for the innovation and competitiveness of SMEs. I focus on Czech producers of outdoor equipment, which constitute a young, progressive and less-studied sector. I am especially interested in the location of strategic knowledge and the importance of various types of closeness in accessing such knowledge. In the Czech outdoor industry, a-spatial forms of proximity have greater significance. In contrast to international trade fairs, firms do not consider regional sources of competitiveness relevant. National and international social networks are important as well. The interconnection of formal and informal relations is very common in the outdoor industry as a significant number of entrepreneurs are members of the mountaineering or climbing community themselves. About 50% of these enterprises have moved their production to East Asia, where they are able to find cheaper labour as well as...
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