How might academic practices contribute to the exciting proliferation of economic experiments occurring worldwide in the current moment? In this paper we describe the work of a nascent research ...community of economic geographers and other scholars who are making the choice to bring marginalized, hidden and alternative economic activities to light in order to make them more real and more credible as objects of policy and activism. The diverse economies research program is, we argue, a performative ontological project that builds upon and draws forth a different kind of academic practice and subjectivity. Using contemporary examples, we illustrate the thinking practices of ontological reframing, re-reading for difference and cultivating creativity and we sketch out some of the productive lines of inquiry that emerge from an experimental, performative and ethical orientation to the world. The paper is accompanied by an electronic bibliography of diverse economies research with over 200 entries.
•Develops a unique conceptual framework for measurement of innovation outcomes.•Distinguishes between structural change and upgrading as two main outcomes.•Evaluates the new EU Innovation Indicator ...against the framework.•Proposes novel indicators to measure structural upgrading.•Outlines policy implications for the EU and the further research agenda.
In October 2013, the European Commission presented a new indicator intended to capture innovation outputs and outcomes and thereby “support policy-makers in establishing new or reinforced actions to remove bottlenecks that prevent innovators from translating ideas into products and services that can be successful on the market”. This article aims to evaluate the usefulness of the new indicator against the background of the difficulties in measuring innovation outputs and outcomes. We develop a unique conceptual framework for measuring innovation outcomes that distinguishes structural change and structural upgrading as two key dimensions in both manufacturing and services. We conclude that the new indicator is biased towards a somewhat narrowly defined “high-tech” understanding of innovation outcomes. We illustrate our framework proposing a broader set of outcome indicators capturing also structural upgrading. We find that the results for the modified indicator differ substantially for a number of countries, with potentially wide-ranging consequences for innovation and industrial policies.
Balland P.-A., Boschma R. and Frenken K. Proximity and innovation: from statics to dynamics, Regional Studies. Despite theoretical and empirical advances, the proximity framework has remained ...essentially static. A dynamic extension of the proximity framework is proposed that accounts for co-evolutionary dynamics between knowledge networking and proximity. For each proximity dimension, how proximities might increase over time as a result of past knowledge ties is described. These dynamics are captured through the processes of learning (cognitive proximity), integration (organizational proximity), decoupling (social proximity), institutionalization (institutional proximity), and agglomeration (geographical proximity). The paper ends with a discussion of several avenues for future research on the dynamics of knowledge networking and proximity.
This annual lecture paper bridges two influential but parallel literature strands on evolutionary economic geography (EEG) and global production networks (GPN). It argues that both strands are ...premised on their different conceptions of 'regional worlds' of production - a more endogenous view in EEG and a more relational view of 'interconnected worlds' of production in GPN studies. Drawing on EEG's core concept of related variety in regional diversification, the paper theorizes how regional strategic coupling with GPN can serve as a causal mechanism for realizing related diversification by highlighting the importance of extra-local/regional linkages and production network dynamics.
Scholars have recently begun to account for the absence of feminist analyses in the popular and academic discourse surrounding ‘the future of work’. In this article we offer a critical synthesis of ...emerging research from feminist economic geography to propose a series of questions about the future of work, conceptualized as both an object of intellectual inquiry and an emerging empirical reality. Feminist economic geography emphasizes difference, embodiment, and conceives of workplaces as dynamic, uneven, and untidy spaces, an emphasis which can help recenter discussions about the future of work on workers and their experience of work. Our discussion features a series of analytically rigorous, theoretically informed, and empirically rich conference papers, organized around three critical questions: Who are the subjects of the future of work? What counts as work? And where should we look? We highlight a broad concept of work developed through debates among feminist scholars across disciplinary fields as a key frame for understanding the global economy, including difference, social reproduction, and the spatial division of labor. Feminist economic geographers are pluralizing the subjects, forms, and geographies of work, which may help enhance our understanding of the future of work in economic geography.
Castaldi C., Frenken K. and Los B. Related variety, unrelated variety and technological breakthroughs: an analysis of US state-level patenting, Regional Studies. This paper investigates how variety ...affects the innovation output of a region. Borrowing arguments from theories of recombinant innovation, it is expected that related variety will enhance innovation as related technologies are more easily recombined into a new technology. However, it is also expected that unrelated variety enhances technological breakthroughs, since radical innovation often stems from connecting previously unrelated technologies opening up whole new functionalities and applications. Using patent data for US states in the period 1977-99 and associated citation data, evidence is found for both hypotheses. This study thus sheds a new and critical light on the related variety hypothesis in economic geography.
•Differentiated knowledge bases are measured using linked-employer-employee micro data.•Analytical, synthetic, and symbolic knowledge has a positive impact on firm growth.•Growth-enhancing effects of ...combinations of the three knowledge bases are detected.•The relationship between knowledge bases intensities and firm growth is curvilinear.•The results are robust in a wide range of models.
The link between knowledge and firm growth has been a core topic in economics of innovation for a long time. However, despite strong theoretical arguments, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. One important reason for this conundrum may be the failure of standard indicators to capture firm innovation activities comprehensively. We contribute to overcoming this limitation by looking in the knowledge processes that drive variegated forms of innovation and aim thereby to establish a solid relationship with firm growth in more detail. Our arguments draw on the differentiated knowledge base approach, distinguishing between analytical, synthetic, and symbolic knowledge. We measure the three types of knowledge bases with detailed longitudinal linked-employer-employee micro-data from Sweden. Econometric findings based on a very large sample of small and medium-sized firms indicate significantly positive effects of the three knowledge types, and in particular combinations thereof, on firm growth. In addition, we show that not only high-growth but also slow-growth firms benefit immensely from the use of combinatory knowledge bases. We find evidence on a curvilinear relation between knowledge bases and growth of firms. Beyond certain thresholds increasing the knowledge bases further results in decreasing firm growth. Our results remain robust in a wide range of specifications and econometric models.
Interregional and intermetropolitan economic divergence is greater in many western developed countries than it has been in many decades. Divergence manifests itself in many ways, including per capita ...income, labor force participation, and the spatial distribution of skills and returns to education. At the same time, geographical polarization of political preferences and electoral choices has increased, with gains in populism and nationalism in some regions, and broadening of socially liberal, pro-trade and multicultural attitudes in other regions. The task of explaining these developments poses challenges to economic geography and regional and urban economics. These fields have already developed some of the building blocks of an account, but a number of important gaps persist. This article is devoted to identifying priorities for regional science and urban economics, the new economic geography and proper economic geography to tackle the key mechanisms behind divergence as well as to integrate them in a common overall framework.
Hassink R., Klaerding C. and Marques P. Advancing evolutionary economic geography by engaged pluralism, Regional Studies. Since 2006 economic geographers have been confronted with attempts to ...constitute a new paradigm of evolutionary economic geography. This paper aims at advancing evolutionary economic geography by reviewing its core critique and proposed solutions, particularly that of integrating the perspective of a geographical political economy. Although the authors sympathize with the identified shortcomings of evolutionary economic geography, the proposed alternative approach, geographical political economy, is regarded as being too narrow and reductionist. By combining evolutionary and relational economic geography in certain respects a plea is made for advancing evolutionary economic geography by engaged pluralism.
•Framework on determinants of firm survival in global innovation systems (GIS).•Empirical evidence on the solar photovoltaics industry from 1960 to 2016.•Firm survival depends on GIS configurations ...in different parts of the value chain.•Firm survival is shorter in GIS with a mobile innovation mode and valuation system.•Demand-side policies produce negative effects on survival in most GIS types.
Economic globalization and the modularization of value chains increasingly challenge long-held conceptual models explaining the spatial evolution of industries. This paper seeks to re-interpret early industry life cycle dynamics by disintegrating an industry's value chain into upstream, core and downstream parts and characterizing each part according to its underlying global innovation system (GIS) configuration. We distinguish between firms in parts of the value chain that depend on formalized, science-based innovation and cater for globally standardized mass markets (‘footloose’ GIS) and firms in parts of the value chain that rely on spatially more stable GIS structures, in which either the innovation activities or the valuation dynamics (or both) depend on spatial embedding in given territorial contexts. Our hypothesis is that firms which occupy parts of the value chain with footloose GIS characteristics will have shorter survival times than firms which operate in spatially more stable GIS types. Demand-side policies will accordingly produce stronger competitive advantages for firms operating in GIS with spatially stable valuation structures. The empirical context of our study is the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry. We analyze market entry and exit of 129 German and 127 Japanese PV firms from 1960 to 2016 using a Cox Proportional Hazards model. The results support the hypotheses that firm survival and policy effects depend on a value chain part's underlying GIS configuration.
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