Abstract
Abstract 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.
Highlights
Globalization and digitalization are frequently contrasted with the local integration of firms, for innovation processes
The following research question is posed: What influences the integration of Hidden Champions in rural regional innovation systems? As indicated above, the proposition here is that these firms are not strongly integrated in RIS due to their international sales focus, specialized technology, and rural location
Addressing the state of the literature and the research gap outlined above, the following research question is posed in this paper: What influences the integration of Hidden Champions in rural regional innovation systems? To answer this question, a RIS framework of two subsystems is applied to systematically investigate the influences on the rural RIS integration of this firm type (Autio 1998; Cooke 2002)
Summary
Globalization and digitalization are frequently contrasted with the local integration of firms, for innovation processes. Research emphasizes the importance of localized innovation systems, whose institutionally-embedded complex inno-. These phenomena are highly relevant for Hidden Champions. Hidden Champions produce highly specialized products and require very specific fields of knowledge in their R&D activities (Rammer & Spielkamp 2019). Their headquarters are frequently located outside of industrial agglomerations: in Germany, two-thirds of Hidden Champions are located in rural areas (Schenkenhofer 2020). As a consequence of these aspects, this paper proposes that the integration of Hidden Champions in rural regional innovation systems (RIS) can be assumed to be relatively low
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