Hidden Champions and their integration in rural regional innovation systems: Insights from Germany

This article studies the integration of Hidden Champions – little-known highly innovative global market leaders – in rural regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany. These firms are analyzed in relation to their integration into a RIS framework, which differentiates two subsystems: knowledge generation and diffusion, and knowledge application and exploitation. The relevance of firm-internal and firm-external regional influencing factors on rural RIS integration is examined. The article proposes that Hidden Champions are weakly integrated in RIS due to their international sales focus and high technological specialization. To test this premise, 57 expert interviews with Hidden Champions and regional actors were conducted. It was found that key influences for RIS integration of this firm type are ownership structure, firm size, organizational status, location economies, and urbanization economies. Family businesses are on average more integrated than other firm types, but vary significantly in their integration.

KONSENTRASI SPASIAL, AGLOMERASI DAN PRODUKTIVITAS PERUSAHAAN INDUSTRI MANUFAKTUR INDONESIA

This study aims to analyze the impact of agglomeration in the form of localization economies and urbanization economies on the productivity of manufacturing industrial companies in Indonesia. Unlike previous studies, this study will look at the effect of technology level on the relationship between productivity and agglomeration by classifying research samples into low-tech and high-tech industries. In addition, this study also improves the estimation technique by addressing the endogeneity problem that has the potential to arise in estimating the relationship between productivity and agglomeration to be overcome by using instrument variable (IV). The study was conducted in two stages of estimation using company-level panel data from 2010 to 2014. First, productivity was measured at the company level using Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Then, the company productivity is estimated together with the company and industry characteristic variables, including the agglomeration measurement variable which represents localization economies and urbanization economies. The regression results show a positive impact from localization economies and a negative impact from urbanization economies.AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis dampak aglomerasi berupa localization economies dan urbanization economies terhadap produktivitas perusahaan industri manufaktur di Indonesia. Berbeda dengan penelitian terdahulu yang juga meneliti dampak aglomerasi industri terhadap produktivitas perusahaan, pada penelitian ini akan melihat pengaruh tingkat teknologi terhadap hubungan produktivitas dan aglomerasi dengan mengklasifikasikan sampel penelitian ke dalam industri berteknologi rendah dan industri berteknologi tinggi. Selain itu, peneltian ini juga memperbaiki teknik estimasi dari penelitian sebelumnya dengan menangani masalah endogenitas yang berpotensi muncul dalam mengestimasi hubungan produktivitas dan aglomerasi akan diatasi dengan penggunaan instrument variable (IV). Penelitian dilakukan dalam dua tahap estimasi dengan menggunakan data panel level perusahaan dari tahun 2010 sampai 2014. Pertama, produktivitas diukur pada level perusahaan dengan menggunakan Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Kemudian, produktivitas perusahaan diestimasi bersama variabel karakteristik perusahaan dan industri, termasuk variabel pengukuran aglomerasi yang mewakili localization economies dan urbanization economies. Hasil regresi menunjukkan adanya dampak positif dari localization economies dan dampak negatif dari urbanization economies.

Regional Disparities in Turkey: A Socio-Economic Perspective

Economic development, for any country, is one of the most important objectives to be achieved. However, development cannot be realized in all regions and provinces of a county at the same time and speed. Turkey also struggles against a persistent economic development problem among regions in east-west and coast-inland for many years. This study aims to analyze the regional inequalities in Turkey under the scope of economic, demographic and social indicators from 2007 to the latest data. The results indicate that TR-10 Istanbul is the engine region of Turkey in terms of industrialization and development with the highest contribution (31%) based on service and industry sectors, to the gross value added. Other industrialized regions are the Aegean region where localization economies mainly dominated and the East Marmara and TR51-Ankara regions where urbanization economies operated in. Agricultural activities heavily concentrated in Aegean, Antalya, Konya and Şanlıurfa regions. In these regions, participation in the labour market is also very high. However, the highest income inequality and poverty is also found in TR10, TR62 and TR21 regions. The less developed region is the Southeast Anatolian region in terms of low income, education, health and high unemployment, young population and immigration rates. Keywords: Regional disparities, regional development, socio-economic indicators, Turkey

The impact of institutional proximity, cognitive proximity and agglomeration economies on firm-level productivity

PurposeThis paper analyses the impact of institutional proximity, cognitive proximity and geographical proximity (in the form of agglomeration economies) on the firm-level productivity of foreign-owned firms in Ireland. The analysis of agglomeration economies, consisting of internal economies of scale, localization economies, related variety and urbanization economies, has a strong pedigree in regional economics literature. Increasingly, however, alternative explanations of firm-level productivity performance have been explored with institutional and cognitive proximity often identified as other important determinants of performance. This paper presents an analysis of the importance of agglomeration economies (based on geographical proximity) versus institutional and cognitive proximity (which may be a-spatial).Design/methodology/approachA series of measures capturing regional level agglomeration economies are generated as well as measures of institutional and cognitive proximity. The impact of these effects on foreign-owned firm-level productivity is analysed using data from the Irish Census of Industrial Local Units 2009. The estimation method employed is general method of moments (GMM) which allows for the potential endogeneity of variables within the system of analysis.FindingsThe results reveal that institutional proximity has a positive impact on productivity. A possible reason for this result is that local units of the same nationality are sharing knowledge in relation to successfully conducting business in Ireland. However, cognitive proximity is found to be statistically insignificant. Agglomeration economies are also important with urbanization economies and the availability of skilled labour having a positive effect on productivity.Originality/valueThe key contributions of this paper are as follows; firstly, the paper provides the first test of the institutional and cognitive proximity hypotheses on productivity while also controlling for a series of internal and external agglomeration economies. Secondly, the analysis considers, firm level, regional level and national level indicators as determinants of firm's productivity. In combining micro and macro level indicators, the paper attempts to answer the call of Van Oort et al. (2012) for such analyses. Thirdly, the paper provides the first detailed examination of the role of ‘proximity’ on foreign-owned manufacturing firms in the Irish context.

Evidence for localization and urbanization economies in urban scaling

We study the scaling of (i) numbers of workers and aggregate incomes by occupational categories against city size, and (ii) total incomes against numbers of workers in different occupations, across the functional metropolitan areas of Australia and the USA. The number of workers and aggregate incomes in specific high-income knowledge economy-related occupations and industries show increasing returns to scale by city size, showing that localization economies within particular industries account for superlinear effects. However, when total urban area incomes and/or gross domestic products are regressed using a generalized Cobb–Douglas function against the number of workers in different occupations as labour inputs, constant returns to scale in productivity against city size are observed. This implies that the urbanization economies at the whole city level show linear scaling or constant returns to scale. Furthermore, industrial and occupational organizations, not population size, largely explain the observed productivity variable. The results show that some very specific industries and occupations contribute to the observed overall superlinearity. The findings suggest that it is not just size but also that it is the diversity of specific intra-city organization of economic and social activity and physical infrastructure that should be used to understand urban scaling behaviours.

The effects of population and housing density in urban areas on income in the United States

Cities in the United States have become increasingly less dense either from sprawl from rapid development or vacancy due to decline. The benefits and costs of urban density have been a topic of research since the mid-20th century. The effect of urban density on incomes is one of these areas of research. Based on concepts rooted in urbanization economies and social output, it is assumed in this paper that an increase in urban density increases incomes. Urban density is defined as population and housing density. It was found using a cross-sectional lagged mediated multiple regression that population and housing density have statistically significant indirect effects on income in a sample of more than 300 metropolitan areas in the United States. The significant effects of these variables on employment and the effect of employment on income mediated these effects.

The Intrametropolitan Geography of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS): A Comparative Analysis of Six European and U.S. City-Regions

Analyzing the intrametropolitan locations of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) provides insight into the geography of the knowledge economy. This study focuses on the urban spatial structure and implications of KIBS for urban or regional development and planning through a comparison of KIBS’ structures in six city-regions representing different global contexts. This includes varied socioeconomic and political frameworks: three European city-regions (London, Paris, and Madrid) and three U.S. city-regions (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago). The results show that (a) there is a relationship between urban spatial structure and KIBS location; (b) KIBS locate in a polycentric form in search of urbanization economies; but (c) certain KIBS are highly concentrated in just a few subcenters, looking for localization economies; (d) proximity to the core and agglomeration economies are a factor in the location of KIBS; and (e) the European cases have more KIBS subcenters but closer to their central business districts, while the American cases have fewer and larger KIBS subcenters located farther from their central business districts.

Agglomeration economies and urban productivity

This study explores the relationship between agglomeration economies and industrial productivity between 1980 and 2010 in Ecuador. The measure of productivity used is labour productivity. We conclude that urbanization economies have a positive impact on productivity in the period analyzed.