A theoretical foundation for investigating the spatial economic attributes of airport-centric developments

Among the various areas of interest on the topic of airports and the geographical distribution of land use, one pertinent theme is the spatial economic analysis of airports and their environs. However, the existing literature predominantly focuses on describing the land-use composition of airport-centric developments, without unpacking the spatial economic forces at play. This gap brings to the fore the need to employ an appropriate theoretical lens to guide the spatial economic analysis of airports and their environs. The aim of this theoretical review paper is thus to identify concepts that are relevant to the analysis of airports and their environs; and to use those concepts to systematically identify the existing theory that is most suitable for investigating the spatial economic forces that drive airport-centric developments. Against the background of globalisation, we scrutinise classical location theories, regional science, growth pole theory and new economic geography against their relational interpretations of the concepts of space, proximity, firm, scale and pattern. Given that it portrays a relational perspective of the aforesaid concepts, the paper concludes that growth pole theory is suitable as the main framework for analysing airport-centric developments. It is therefore recommended that growth pole theory be empirically used to guide the analysis of airports and their environs, and subsequently be used as the basis for developing a theoretical framework tailored for airport-centric developments.

Quo Vadis, Business? The migration of companies between cities using the example of the Mazowieckie voivodship in Poland

Relations between metropolitan core cities and regional and sub-regional centres are part of a broader discussion on the importance of metropolitan areas for the development of regions. These relations are dealt with in this paper in the context of the growth pole theory. The paper focuses on the migration process in relation to enterprises. By moving their businesses, companies contribute to backwash and spread effects. Since company migrations between municipalities occur in both directions, the question remains open as to which migration direction dominates – whether from sub-regional centres to core cities or vice versa. This paper attempts to verify the hypothesis that regional and sub-regional centres in the Mazowieckie voivodship suffer the largest loss of enterprises due to migration to the core city of Warsaw. The results obtained were varied and the hypothesis was confirmed, especially in the case of three cities: Siedlce, Radom and Płock; and partly in the case of Ciechanów.

Regional projection of the growth pole theory: foreign and Russian experience

In the modern context, each country is interested in the new sources of economic growth. The authors believe that the source of economic growth can lie in the spatial factors of regional development – the so-called “growth poles”. This article discusses the Russian and foreign experience of using the growth poles to accelerate regional development. The subject of this research is the spatial-economic processes that take place in terms of implementation of the “growth pole” strategy in Russian and foreign practices. The object of this research is regions of the Russian Federation and regions of the foreign countries, in the territory of which the practice of “growth poles” development was implemented. The goal of this article is to present the regional projection of scientific foundation of growth pole theory relying on the works of leading scholars, as well as advanced national and foreign experience. The author’s special contribution consists in generalization of information pertaining to the use of the “growth pole” concept in the relevant strategic planning documents. The novelty lies in the hypothesis on classification of growth poles in Russian practice, the number of growth poles in the territory of the Russian Federation. The acquired results allow assessing the Russian and foreign experience in implementation of the growth pole theory, determining the factors and conditions for achieving the goals and objectives of the strategies of polarized regional development in the Russian Federation and foreign countries.

Multipliers and impacts of active sport tourism in the Greek region of Messinia

Few studies on the economic impact of active sport tourism have been conducted, and these are limited to one sport. Multipliers, moreover, relate only to sport activities and not to sport tourist typologies. This article examines the economic impact of four activities (golf, windsurfing, horse riding and scuba diving) on income and employment generation in Messinia, a region in south-western Greece. Since no input–output tables are available at this local level, the ad hoc model was employed. Golf generated higher income and more employment units than the other activities, displaying all of the characteristics of a propulsive activity, a concept derived from the growth pole theory. Regarding typologies, primary sports tourists exhibit higher multipliers than tourists interested in sport in every case. The article, also, partially validates the general consensus that small tourism firms have higher total multipliers than their larger counterparts. Implications stemming from the results are discussed.

Recent LHC/TOTEM data challenging the standard Regge pole theory

We analyse the recently discovered phenomena in elastic protonproton scattering at the LHC: the low-|t| “break” (departure from the exponential behaviour of the diffraction cone), the accelerating rise with energy of the forward slope B(s), the absence of secondary dips and bumps on the cone and the role of the odderon in the forward phase of the amplitude, ρ(13 TeV) = 0:09 ± 0:01, especially its contribution at the dip region, measured recently by TOTEM. The dip at 13 TeV seems to become more shallow with respect to lower energies, and we attribute this important new phenomena to the odderon contribution. These findings call for a revision of the standeard Regge-pole theory.