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Zukauskaite, Elena; Trippl, Michaela; Plechero, Monica
doi: 10.1080/00130095.2017.1331703pmid: N/A
abstractOver the last two decades, the notion of institutional thickness has become a key reference for a large body of work that has sought to provide profound insights into the link between institutions and regional development. However, only few attempts have been made to reassess the concept, to improve its methodology, and to reflect on its empirical application. The aim of this article is to revise the original concept of institutional thickness. We draw on and seek to contribute to current work in economic geography and related disciplines on the role of organizations and institutions in regional development. We identify some crucial limitations and provide suggestions for how they can be addressed. It is argued that much can be gained by (1) explicitly elaborating on the relation between the organizational and institutional dimensions of thickness, (2) moving beyond overly static views on thickness, (3) developing a multiscalar approach to thickness, and (4) identifying features for assessing thickness in absolute and relative terms.
doi: 10.1080/00130095.2017.1308223pmid: N/A
abstractRelying on a large panel of Chinese firms, this article attempts to investigate the effects of technological relatedness on firm survival and subsequent success (e.g., profits and productivity). The results show that related establishments that colocate together outperform their counterparts located elsewhere, although it is not clear whether these findings are due to the presence of externalities or alternative explanations. To explore this issue, several proxies for the Marshallian sources of relatedness are further developed to better reveal the underlying mechanisms that drive relatedness. The findings show that technological proximity helps to respectively reduce the costs of moving goods, people, and ideas, thus providing strong support for Marshallian theories of agglomeration. The ownership structure of the firm matters, however. Specifically, wholly privately owned enterprises are more successful than firms where the state is a minority shareholder at converting technologically related spillovers into higher profits and higher-efficiency gains.
Montresor, Sandro; Quatraro, Francesco
doi: 10.1080/00130095.2017.1326810pmid: N/A
abstractThis article investigates the role of key enabling technologies (KETs) in regional branching. Taking into account the general purpose properties of these technologies, and referring to recombinant innovation theories, we argue that KETs knowledge could attenuate the effect that regional branching ascribes to technological relatedness, giving regions more scope for their technological diversification strategies. Furthermore, we claim that regions could benefit from this KETs effect, even if they are followers in their development, thanks to interregional spillovers from closer KETs leaders. Combining regional patent and economic data from a thirty-year panel (1980–2010) of twenty-six European countries, we actually find that KETs negatively moderate the role of technological relatedness for regional specialization in new technological fields, captured by a revealed technology advantage index. KETs knowledge also increases the number of new technological specializations. This positive effect more than compensates the previous negative moderation effect, so that the net impact of KETs on regional branching is positive. Supportive evidence is also found for KETs cross-regional spillovers. Overall, the results provide scientific support for the recent European Commission recommendation to plug KETs into the policy toolbox for smart specialization strategies inspired by regional branching.
doi: 10.1080/00130095.2017.1308222pmid: N/A
abstractOffshore has become a staple term in the lexicon of economic globalization, and, yet, it has also become a bit of a black-box term. The range of meanings attached tends to mask the complex, dynamic, and emergent qualities that are vital for the constant reinvention of offshore spaces. This article examines the activities of Russian transnationalizing entrepreneurs of the Russian information technology (IT) offshore—a sector that is made up principally of firms based in Russia specialized in providing IT and software services for clients located in Western Europe and North America—and analyzes how their unique experiment to expand operations to Ukraine is generating a new spatial reality, one with internal hierarchies and subspaces, which I call the off-offshore.Drawing on the narratives of engineers, managers, and directors of Russian firms who drive the creation of this new off-offshoring reality, the article focuses on the process and practices developed by transnationalizing entreprenuers. I document how these actors devised the initial attempts for expanding their operations in Ukraine, how they proceeded to implement and adapt their plans, and what language—from biological metaphors to pragmatic business terminology—they use to grasp the newness of this process. The article highlights various unexpected difficulties that the firms encountered in their expansion efforts and discusses the unique new multidimensional knowledge work spacethat becomes the reality of such firms as a result of experimental rhizomatic techniques and practices that they develop—such as management circulation, multidirectional and reversed training, and the development of online forums and in the flesh groups to encourage enthusiasts based in the new locations.
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