Industry–research co‐operation within and across regional boundaries. What does innovation policy add?

The paper aims to show how regional policy‐makers can stimulate firms' co‐operation with research organizations by granting an R&D subsidy. Using an original dataset for the Italian region of Emilia‐Romagna, propensity score matching is first applied to identify the impact of the subsidy received. A generalized propensity score technique is then employed to investigate the effect of an increasing amount of support. The firm's co‐operation is policy sensitive. The award of a subsidy to regional firms affects their intra‐regional more than their extra‐regional co‐operation. The propensity toward the latter appears subject to a monetary effect and is influenced by the amount of public funding received providing the subsidy overcomes a minimum threshold.     

‘One for all and all for one’: Cluster,employment, and the global economic crisis. Evidence from the German mechanical engineering industry

How regional clusters – and the firms constituting it – respond to major economic shocks has only recently become the centre of attention in regional research. Taking the concept of ‘adaptive resilience’ as a point of departure, and using a mixed methods approach (firm survey, multivariate analysis, expert interviews), this study explores the response of cluster and non‐cluster firms of the German mechanical engineering sector during the initial phase of the crisis (2008–2009). Findings show a significantly more positive employment trend in cluster firms than in non‐cluster firms. Further analyses of the mechanisms that allow cluster firms to exhibit more resilience than other firms suggest that solidarity and altruism among regional actors were of particular importance in the beginning of the crisis.     

University‐industry linkages: What are the determinants of distance in collaborations?*

In the last twenty years, universities' efforts to collaborate with industry and foster knowledge transfer have increased progressively. Many of these efforts have been directed at firms located at a distance from the university, and sometimes in a different country. Based on an original database of interviews with 197 Italian university departments, this paper determines the effects of geographical location, research performance and researcher mobility on the frequency of university‐industry collaborations and on the probability of departments engaging in distant collaborations.     

The spatial distribution of inventor networks

Inventor networking has become both more feasible with improved telecommunication and more important as it usually produces research of higher quality. Despite overwhelming evidence on the benefits of collaboration, patent data from 1994 to 2001 in Sweden demonstrate that inventor networks are not very common. Moreover, the spatial distribution of inventor networks is not uniform. It appears that agglomeration measured both as employment density and as industry diversity, plays a role in explaining networking. Our results indicate that inventor networks are more likely to exist in densely populated areas with a diversified industry. Market size has a negative impact on networking in that we can observe that inventor networks are less common in large metropolitan areas, ceteris paribus. Hence, it supports the proposition that networking can act as a substitute to agglomeration. Our results also suggest that researchers in dense areas will not only collaborate more; they will also collaborate over longer distance.     

Taking Root in the Silicon Forest: High-technology Firms as Surrogate Universities in Portland,Oregon

Most case studies of successful high-technology industry regions highlight the role of research universities in fostering regional economic development. The Portland, Oregon, region managed to root a thriving high-tech industry in the absence of this critical factor. In this article, I present a case study of the evolution of Portland's high-tech industry and propose that high-tech firms can act as surrogate universities that attract and develop labor, create knowledge, and function as incubators for startups. I conclude that planners working to develop high-tech industries in regions without major research universities should attract R&D-intensive firms, maintain information on key busineses and entrepreneurial ventures, support an innovation milieu, and set realistic goals.     

The impact of non‐financial incentives on bricklayers' productivity in Nigeria

High productivity is regarded as a goal that ensures long‐term survival of firms. In Nigeria's labour‐intensive construction industry, firms are currently applying various non‐financial incentive schemes aimed at improving operatives' productivity. A questionnaire survey involving the management and operatives of construction firms was conducted to determine the impact of these scheme on the productivity of bricklayers. The survey was complemented with on‐site observation and measurement of bricklayers' output on 40 construction projects in order to determine the impact of non‐financial incentive schemes on productivity. Comparative analysis of sites with and without incentives showed that non‐financial incentive schemes significantly improved bricklayers' productive time and these schemes accounted for 6% to 26% of the variations in output between the two sets of sites on block laying and concreting activities measured.     

R&D networks and regional knowledge production in Europe: Evidence from a space‐time model

In this study we estimate space‐time impacts of the embeddedness in R&D networks on regional knowledge production using a dynamic spatial panel data model with non‐linear effects for 229 European NUTS 2 regions in the period 1998–2010. Embeddedness refers to the positioning in networks where nodes represent regions that are linked by joint R&D projects funded by EU Framework Programmes. We find evidence that increasing embeddedness in EU funded R&D networks leads to positive immediate impacts on regional knowledge production, and that regions with lower levels of own knowledge endowments more likely exploit the positive effects. However, the long‐term impacts of a region's embeddedness in these R&D networks are comparatively small.     

Factors and taxonomy of technology purchase (TP) by internationalized innovative companies in peripheral European regions

The TP of 193 internationalized innovative firms/establishments in Andalusia is studied with the data from a self‐designed survey. The objectives: to identify the key variables of TP and technology adoption and to obtain a taxonomy of firms, thus enabling the study of the capacity to absorb technology and to transfer this to the regional market. This paper provides the key variables of TP, which are organizational capacity and the development of own technology. It has been established that the purchase of machinery predominates and that technology transfer has a limited effect in the region. It is noted that the classifications of Pavitt and Soete and Miozzo are not consistent with the performance of these firms in peripheral European regions.     

SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL COLLABORATION

Although researchers have made progress in understanding motivations behind local government collaboration, there is little research that explores the spatial dynamics of such interactions. Does the idea of collaboration travel horizontally, passed from neighbor to neighbor, or is vertical leadership from state, county, or regional actors more important in influencing local governments’ decisions to share resources and functions? What factors influence local governments’ choices to collaborate with their neighbors versus a regional entity, county, or state government? In this article, we investigate the importance of vertical and horizontal influences when local governments decide to collaborate around land use planning. Using data from a survey of Michigan local government officials, we take a spatial statistical approach to answering this question. We find widespread evidence of collaboration at multiple scales, and observe patterns of both horizontal and vertical influence. We also find that contextual factors help to explain these patterns of collaboration.     

Who with whom: Co‐operation activities in a cluster region

This study examines the effect of establishment and cluster characteristics on different co‐operation partners in one particular region. Based on a survey in the Nuremberg region in Germany, we estimate a multivariate probit model and confirm other studies, in particular regarding co‐operation with R&D institutions. Establishments in the service sector are especially likely to co‐operate with local initiatives and networks, a type of co‐operation that functional cluster affiliation has no effect on. Co‐operation with local authorities is of interest only if establishments are affiliated with a cluster that is of importance to regional policy. Establishments that consider themselves cluster members are particularly likely to co‐operate.     

Spatial patterns of adoption of just‐in‐time manufacturing *

We study the spatial pattern of just‐in‐time (JIT) adoption for a sample of medium‐sized and large Spanish manufacturing firms. JIT differs from other advanced manufacturing technologies because it relates directly to the spatial co‐ordination of firms' internal production organisation with the external productive environment and depends on the quality of the transport system. Our results confirm the distinctive role of location for JIT adoption even after controlling for industry and plant‐specific differences. We find that JIT adoption is greater in smaller cities but with higher transport accessibility indicating that urban congestion in larger urban areas likely reduces the benefits that firms may obtain from JIT implementation.     

The size distribution of exporting and non‐exporting firms in a panel of Chinese provinces

This paper studies the size distribution of exporting and non‐exporting firms in a panel of Chinese provinces. The power law exponents of exporting firms are significantly less than those of non‐exporting firms. The average power law exponents fell from 0.74 in 1998 to 0.64 in 2007 for exporting firms, and from 1.03 in 1998 to 0.83 in 2007 for non‐exporting firms. Further analysis showed that credit constraints have a significant negative effect on the exponents of the size distribution of exporting firms, suggesting that smaller firms are more credit‐constrained than larger firms.     

The great asymmetric divide: An empirical investigation of the link between indigenous and non‐indigenous economic systems in Northern Australia

This empirical study explores financial links between indigenous and non‐indigenous economic systems in a remote river catchment in Northern Australia (the Mitchell). It finds evidence of a profound and asymmetric ‘disconnect’ between these economies: an exogenous increase in indigenous incomes raises the incomes of non‐indigenous people, but the reverse is not true. Evidently, those seeking to improve the incomes of indigenous people in Northern Australia cannot simply seek to (i) increase payments to indigenous people, or (ii) expand the non‐indigenous sector hoping that some benefits will ‘trickle down’. Instead, structural change is required.     

Planning as Innovation: The Chilean Case

A distinction is made between allocative and innovative planning on the ground that there are significant behavioral differences between them. Innovative planning is defined as (1) seeking to legitimize new social objectives or effect a major reordering in the priority of existing objectives, (2) concerned with translating general value propositions into new institutional arrangements and concrete action programs, (3) being more interested in the mobilization of resources than in their optimal use, and (4) proposing to guide innovation processes through information feedback of the actual consequences of action. These points are illustrated with data from Chile's urban and regional development program, ending with a discussion of the relation between innovative and allocative planning.     

Firm relocations in the Netherlands: Why do firms move,and where do they go?*

This study analyses determinants of business relocation and identifies regional characteristics which attract relocating firms. Results indicate that the relocation decisions of firms are sector‐dependent, and the migratory behaviour of firms in knowledge‐intensive sectors notably differs from that in less knowledge‐intensive sectors. Predominantly low‐tech and medium‐low‐tech manufacturing and less knowledge‐intensive service firms paying high average salaries have a higher probability to move out of their present location. For less knowledge‐intensive service firms, the average municipal wage negatively affects their propensity to relocate, while those located in municipalities with high sector‐specific wages have an increased likelihood to move. Relocating firms are generally attracted by densely populated municipalities with high wage levels, and primarily service firms are drawn to municipalities which are specialized in the firm's own sector and appeal to individuals. Sector‐specific wages may either attract, or deter firms, suggesting that this variable may capture both the cost and the quality of the locally available workforce.     

Geographical knowledge search,internal R&D intensity and product innovation of clustering firms in Zhejiang,China

While a great deal of literature has paid attention to knowledge spillover on innovation, this study argues that geographical knowledge search that lays much emphasis on firm strategies merits more attention. This paper examines the effect of geographical knowledge search strategies, such as local/non‐local search depth and local/non‐local search breadth on product innovation. We reveal that while local search depth and breadth as well as non‐local search breadth exert a significant influence, non‐local search depth produces a negative impact on product innovation. Our research suggests that clustering firms' geographical knowledge search strategies and R&D intensity should be highlighted to understand their product innovation.     

Location choices with a non‐linear demand function

This paper introduces a non‐linear hyperbolic demand function in a spatial shipping model. We show that, in contrast with the linear demand case, dispersion of firms emerges in equilibrium both when the firms compete through quantities and when they compete through prices. Further, the impact of the marginal production costs on the degree of firms' dispersion in equilibrium is positive when firms compete with prices, and it is inverse U‐shape when firms compete with quantities.     

Creativity,education or what? On the measurement of regional human capital

This paper substantiates the debate following Richard Florida's suggestion to measure regional human capital by creative occupations rather than education. Consistent with Florida's notion of creativity, it suggests a microfoundation that relates creativity to workers’ cognitive and non‐cognitive skills. It shows that this microfoundation is similar to that of human capital in recent labour economics, which has facilitated important new insights. While the regional measures of creative occupations developed by Florida or others are too crude to make a difference, occupations may help project workers’ cognitive and non‐cognitive skills from the micro to the regional level.     

Exploring new systems of regionalism: An English case study

This longitudinal study of the North West England has identified two new approaches to regionalism. ‘Hybrid regionalism’ puts forward an alternative between old regionalism (in terms of a holistic tier of regional government above local authorities) and new regionalism (or complete reliance on voluntary collaboration for self-interest). This study has verified the hypothesis that hybrid regionalism, which involves the central establishment and steering of regional collaboration with a sustainable development objective, is effective in encouraging non-governmental involvement, relational innovation among ‘less likely’ partners, and the formulation of policies that are cross-sectoral and focused on their regional remit (spatial policy fitness) as opposed to parochial and/or central interests. Another approach to regionalism identified in this study is ‘departmental new regionalism’ in which national growth targets, rather than the self-interest of localities, institutionalize and control collaboration. This approach to regionalism could lead to non-governmental involvement but more limited relational innovation, especially between local governments, and a resultant strategy which would be oriented towards the region's contribution to the wider economy.