Economic Geography Literature Research Articles

The ongoing green industry shift in Helgeland: Historical developments and future-oriented green regional industry scenarios

ABSTRACT The article’s objective is to contribute to the literature on green in peripheral regions by developing an analytical perspective that integrates the historical regional industry path development process with the creation of alternative regional industry futures. The article emphasizes the role of intertemporal change agency that allows the actors to engage in deliberation regarding appropriate moments, being prepared and waiting for the right time to explore new opportunities in the future by learning from past setbacks and failures. The authors do this by developing a theoretically informed analytical perspective based on insights from the evolutionary economic geography (EEG) literature. Additionally, the authors explore how regional actors build upon historical developments to construct multiple future regional industry scenarios proactively. Empirically, the article looks at the long-term historical and contemporary green industry path development in Helgeland, Nordland. The authors identify and discuss three specific future-oriented regional industry scenarios – (1) transformation and rejuvenation, (2) stagnation, and (3) preservation – based on the historical developments. Additionally, they discuss the relevance of the alternative future regional industry scenarios. The authors conclude that the role of intertemporal change agency is critical for understanding how regional actors construct future opportunities by learning from the experiences in the past.

Symbolic knowledge innovation through bricolage in the periphery: the Bauhaus movement

Abstract In this article, we examine how symbolic knowledge innovation—that is, the recombination of ideas on aesthetic value in new ways—emerges in the periphery. While symbolic knowledge innovation drives growth, its role in creating new paths in the periphery is largely under-investigated. New path creation has been largely envisaged through macro (e.g., policy) or meso (e.g., industrial R&D) aggregates, overlooking micro-level actors (e.g., individuals), and their agency in mobilizing heterogeneous resources vital for innovation. Viewed in this light, we investigate how the interaction of actors at different levels (macro, meso, and micro) shapes symbolic knowledge innovation in the periphery. We draw on the case of Bauhaus movement to investigate symbolic knowledge innovation in the peripheries of Weimar and Dessau. Our findings illustrate symbolic knowledge innovation at the Bauhaus in terms of three phases, namely, semiotic codes: Bauhaus idea generation and articulation; material basis: development of Bauhaus artefacts; and material basis: Bauhaus commercial success. We further unpack actors’ agency and show how each phase of symbolic knowledge innovation emerges through bricolage. We contribute to the economic geography literature by showing the role of bricolage and actors’ agency in symbolic knowledge innovation for new path creation in the periphery.

An evolutionary approach to regional studies on global value chains

ABSTRACT There is an ongoing dialogue that explores how the global production network and evolutionary economic geography (EEG) literatures can make promising crossovers. This paper aims to contribute to this debate by outlining a theoretical-analytical approach to regional studies on global value chains (GVCs). Building on the EEG literature on relatedness, economic complexity and regional diversification, this approach aims to develop a better understanding of the ability of regions to develop new and upgrade existing GVCs, and why regions may experience the loss or downgrading of existing GVCs. We present the features of this relatedness/complexity approach to GVCs and discuss potential fields of applications.

Mapping the landscape of university technology flows in China using patent assignment data

The commercialization of intellectual property has become a fundamental avenue for universities to improve regional competitiveness. However, large-scale empirical studies on patent transfers, reflecting technology and knowledge sharing, remain limited. This study used social network analysis to investigate university technology flows in China based on patent assignments from technological, organizational, and regional perspectives. The results firstly revealed clear stage characteristics in the number of university patent assignments with the improvement of the Chinese version of the Bayh-Dole Act. Secondly, popular technologies in university technology flows mainly concentrated on measurement, testing, digital transmission, and other areas in which enterprises lack international competitive advantage. Thirdly, central actors comprised prestigious universities focusing on science, engineering, and comprehensive disciplines, along with intellectual property-focused enterprises. Finally, university technology flows gradually delocalized, and varied regional patterns exist owing to a spatial mismatch between university knowledge supply and regional demand. These findings have several practical and policy implications for government and university management in terms of promoting emerging technologies and clarifying universities’ functions in regional and national innovation systems. This study contributes to the economic geography literature on regional innovation.

Situating knowledge combinations beyond the factory gate: Examples from two innovation projects in rural Norway

Evolutionary economic geography considers knowledge combinations as key for explaining innovation and regional industrial development. Building on the thesis that knowledge is beneficially combined across adjacent industries, the notions of ‘relatedness’ and ‘related variety’ have spurred prolific research. In these strands of research, focus is on potential knowledge combinations, but less so on how knowledge is actually combined. The latter is primarily explained by research on knowledge bases, contributing to a processual understanding. However, knowledge and its combination processes can be better understood with an eye to its social situatedness too. Thus, we here suggest blending insights from different perspectives in the economic geography literature to provide an integrated understanding of the multi-dimensionality and social dynamism of knowledge combination. We apply this framework by investigating the role of individuals in combination processes within tourism.

Identify social and job disparities in the relationship between job‐housing balance and urban commuting using Baidu trajectory big data

AbstractThe job‐housing relationship is a well‐documented topic in urban and economic geography literature, but the disparities in job‐housing relationships across workers' sociodemographic statuses have yet to be fully explored. This study utilizes a Baidu trajectory dataset and spatial analysis tools to examine job‐housing relationships in Zhuhai, China, taking into account disparities in workers' socioeconomic status and job types. Origin–destination analysis indicates that job‐housing relationships for commercial and public service sectors are balanced in the urban core, whereas, for the secondary sector, the relationship is more balanced in the suburban area compared to the central urban area. Network analysis further reveals the presence of self‐contained communities for the secondary sector in peripheral areas. We find that high‐income workers in the secondary sector experience longer commuting distances, in contrast to their counterparts in the commercial and public service sectors. These insights underscore the significance of considering workers' skills in urban and economic planning.

Multi-system dynamics in regional path upgrading: The intra- and inter-path dynamics of green industrial transitions in the Solent marine and maritime pathway

Industries and regions are facing socio-technical landscape pressures to enter green transitions. Coastal industrial regions, often with traditional heavy industries in marine and maritime activities, are under both significant pressures from international organizations and governments to decarbonise, but also find themselves with sizeable opportunities to use green transitions to revitalize and upgrade what are typically declining traditional manufacturing regions. Using 30 semi-structured interviews, we explore the challenges facing green path upgrading in the Solent region of South-East UK. By synthesizing the emerging economic geography literature on inter-path dynamics with the multi-system dynamics approach from the multi-level perspective literature, we find evidence of eight green niches emerging, yet the five main marine and maritime socio-technical systems in the region have struggled to develop and integrate these green technology niches. Consequently, path upgrading has been stifled. We find that the competitive intra-path dynamics between socio-technical systems and emerging technology niches within the Solent marine and maritime pathway, and competitive inter-path dynamics with other industrial pathways beyond the Solent have inhibited the co-ordination and coupling necessary for resource mobilization and green path upgrading. This approach enables us to broaden existing economic geography perspectives of multi-path dynamics, conceptualizing how inter- and intra-path development may work in economic geography, which has thus far mainly focused on single path dynamics and successful path creation.

Jumping scales and producing peripheries: Farmers’ adaptation strategies in crises

Resilience has gathered significant attention from economic geographers, yet their focus has primarily centered on economic outcomes at the regional level. This approach often overlooks the intricate micro-processes and lived experiences during crises, assuming that individual resilience can be understood solely through macro-level economic observations. We argue that comprehending the questions of resilience ‘to what means’ and ‘to what ends’ requires that we acknowledge the importance of social reproduction and daily practices. Through semi-structured interviews with mink farmers in Denmark and by using the concepts of spaces of dependence and spaces of engagement, we first highlight the everyday practices and broader social structures that individuals aim to preserve and reproduce. Second, we draw attention to the application of a relational spatial ontology in resilience studies by discussing cross-scalar networks of individuals as an adaptation strategy. In so doing, we contribute to the resilience literature in economic geography by highlighting that resilience for individuals entails the reproduction of everyday practices. We also draw attention to the consequences of network detachment for individual livelihoods. Thus unveiling how peripherality is shaped and re/produced, rather than given, through the evolving networks of ‘left behind’ people in ‘left behind’ places.

Is national border weakening in technology space? Analysis of inter-urban hierarchy with Chinese patent licensing data

The literature on the diffusion of innovation from the 1970s has found that a domestic inter-urban hierarchy was the most common conduit for the innovation diffusion. Has this hierarchy become obsolete in today’s globalized economy? As less-developed cities within a developing country absorb technological innovation directly from overseas, is the nationality of cities becoming less important? Contemporary economic geography literature tends to answer these questions in the affirmative. This study challenges that resounding yes. Through our analysis of Chinese patent licensing data, we find evidence not only for the survival but also for the reinforcement of the domestic inter-urban hierarchy. While it is true that the number of cities licensing patents to import technology from overseas has been increasing, it is being outmatched by the domestic patent licensing from the top-tier cities within China. This development demonstrates that the role of the nation as a spatial unit of knowledge production and application has remained constant throughout, even as the technological level of its cities has improved under the increasing globalization of the national economy.

Unpacking the competitive relations among Chinese business actors in Africa

ABSTRACT Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa has attracted much discussion on the competitive relations between Chinese companies and their foreign or local counterparts. There is however limited research examining the increasingly competitive relationships among Chinese business actors themselves and the complex implications of their activities for African economic development. Existing studies often either treat Chinese actors as a homogeneous entity pursuing a collective, state-directed agenda or emphasize the collaborative networks among Chinese business groups during their transnational entrepreneurial expansion. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the nature and consequences of intra-Chinese competition in Africa. It draws upon a critical reading of multidisciplinary literature in international businesses, management studies and economic geography, an extensive review of empirical cases across Africa, as well as field research in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Findings shed light on the competitive interests, logics, and strategies of Chinese overseas actors in construction, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail sectors, and identify the challenges associated with managing intra-Chinese competition and fostering positive economic impacts in Africa.

The impact of institutional interactions on cluster response to innovation: The case of Montreal and neural machine translation

AbstractDespite the importance of institutions in the cluster literature, scholarship has struggled with its conceptualization of institutions, resulting in an incomplete portrait of diverse phenomena. In response, we crystallize a hybrid stream of institutionalism that has emerged in the economic geography literature and propose the construct of institutional interactions to provide structural and relational insight into cluster‐wide resistance to innovation. By pairing network analysis with a genealogical study of the Montreal translation cluster, we isolate the impact of institutional interactions and find preliminary support for the redundancies created by institutional brokers and institutional network characteristics. We demonstrate how to use the construct of institutional interactions to diagnose constraints to innovation in an institutional environment.

Bottom-up cluster branding through boundary spanners: The case of the Jingdezhen ceramics cluster in China

It is increasingly recognised that for clusters to evolve and initiate new developmental paths, they need to bring in various external resources, especially external human capital. However, external talent often has imperfect knowledge regarding distant places; hence, a key challenge for clusters is to overcome this lack of knowledge and unfamiliarity to ensure that external talent becomes aware of the cluster’s local assets and the possibilities for (re)locating there. It is thus important for clusters to engage in cluster branding: that is, to promote its assets ‘outwards’ and to build-up a positive, renowned brand-name. While place branding is already an established theme in urban geography, cluster branding has hitherto been under-examined in the extant cluster literature in economic geography. Moreover, both the well-researched place-branding literature and the limited cluster-branding literature tend to be primarily concerned with official, top-down branding, initiated by government agencies. This article, instead, shows that branding can also involve organic, bottom-up processes driven by the agency of diverse individual actors, working in tandem with governmental actors. Through a case study of an arts and creative cluster, the Jingdezhen ceramics cluster in China, it unpacks how resourceful individual actors – conceptualised as boundary spanners – have become powerful agents in increasing the cluster’s legitimacy and visibility in the relevant industries through their personal networks and mobility, thereby contributing to attracting external talent into the cluster. More specifically, the study identifies three bottom-up cluster branding mechanisms, namely: convening temporary clusters locally; participating in external temporary clusters; and representing through digital media.

The Financial Industry Sets Sights on Institutional Investors: A Relational Approach to Property Investment Outsourcing

Over the past few decades, pension funds have emerged as major players in global financial markets as the reserves they manage have grown steadily. In this context, trustees are confronted with acute dilemmas regarding how best to generate investment returns to beneficiaries. This involves crucial decisions regarding the diversification of investment portfolios as well as decisions on whether, when, and to whom to outsource investment functions and tasks. The literature in economic geography has frequently treated outsourcing decisions as taken by the asset owners based on criteria such as costs of coordination, availability of information, governance structure, and internal expertise. Focusing on the outsourcing of property investment by Brazil’s largest pension funds and drawing on a relational approach, this article investigates the actions taken by the real estate investment trust (REIT) industry to attract and retain pension fund money into their investment vehicles. It is claimed that REIT managers have acted on three dimensions to capture pension fund money: (1) by influencing the regulatory framework affecting pension funds, (2) by building networks of trust with pension fund managers and trustees, (3) by adapting internal procedures to the expectations and needs of institutional investors. Putting the spotlight on the evolving, power-laden relationships connecting key actors in finance, we were able to demonstrate how the pooling of money by financial institutions is politically and socially constructed and how it changes the geography of money flows.

Assessing the importance of proximity dimensions for the diffusion of radical innovations in German biotechnology

ABSTRACT This paper estimates the impact of the different proximity dimensions on the subsequent innovation performance of firms which received radical knowledge spillovers. The analysis for the case of biotechnology small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in Germany is based on a dataset covering the period from 1998 to 2017. Results indicate the positive impact of social and organizational proximity on the innovation performance of radical knowledge recipients. Geographical proximity has a negative impact, whereas for cognitive proximity a U-shaped relation is observed. The paper contributes to the innovation economics and economic geography literature by underlining the peculiarities of the effectiveness of radical knowledge spillovers. Additionally, the importance of policy support for SMEs across regions and technological fields is highlighted.

Depression at Work: Exploring Depression in Major US Companies from Online Reviews

Studies on depression in the workplace have mostly investigated its impact on individual employees. Little is known about its association with the company as a whole, or the state where the company is based. This is due to the lack of scalable methodologies operationalizing depression in the specific context of the workplace, and of data documenting potential distress. In this work, we adapted a work-related depression scale called Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI), gathered more than 350K employee reviews of 104 major companies across the whole US for the (2008-2020) years, and developed a deep-learning framework (called AutoODI) scoring these reviews on a composite ODI score. Presence of ODI mentions manifested itself not only at micro-level (companies scoring high in ODI suffered from low stock growth) but also at macro-level (states hosting these companies were associated with high depression rates, talent shortage, and economic deprivation). This new way of applying AutoODI onto company reviews offers both theoretical implications for the literature in computational social science, occupational health and economic geography, and practical implications for companies and policy makers.

Beyond ‘periphery’: a detailed and nuanced taxonomy of the Norwegian regions

ABSTRACT Increasing attention is being paid towards the influence of regional contexts on innovation activities within regional development studies. Some of the literature in economic geography tends to consider the various peripheral areas as being homogenous and partly characterized by their remote location, weak innovation inputs and lack of knowledge exchange. This paper questions this approach by examining the role of innovation activities in peripheral regions. We offer a detailed and multifaceted taxonomy of the Norwegian economic regions. From an empirical viewpoint, the adoption of cluster analysis and a broad set of innovation, economic and territorial indicators allowed us to provide a nuanced picture of the current fabric of Norwegian innovation and economic-production. With the benefit of insights from relevant strands of literature (e.g. regional development, innovation systems and multi-scalar innovation networks), the case of Norway presented in our paper contributes to the scholarly debate on the role of structural preconditions for the innovation of firms in diverse peripheral areas.

What drives the creation of green jobs, products and technologies in cities and regions? Insights from recent research on green industrial transitions

Given the global imperative to meet ‘net zero’, and growing interest in the potential for green jobs growth, there is an urgent need to better understand the drivers and processes underlying green structural economic transitions. How should we in fact define ‘green’ products, jobs and technologies? How do local economies transition into greener jobs – is this generally an incremental process or does it require more radical innovation? Building on nascent green definitions, recent work emerging from the literature in Evolutionary Economic Geography suggests that there is a degree of path dependency to green transitions, with regions benefiting from existing capabilities which are somehow related to newer green tasks and technologies. On the other hand, having diverse, frequently unrelated, skills and competencies also helps local economies to make the recombinations necessary for the emergence of new green activities. These drivers are moderated by factors such as the local institutional environment, IT skills and the degree of maturity of the local industrial base. This article summarises the recent literature in order to provide an overview of emerging findings of relevance to local policy delivery, while also highlighting future research directions.

Territorial Development at the Crossroads of Attractiveness and Sustainability

An abundant literature in spatial planning, economic geography and regional science has focused on territorial attractiveness. However, most literature does not sufficiently integrate recent research challenges induced by sustainable development. The latter issue is likely to modify profoundly the locational determinants of economic activities and the mechanisms that explain the ability of territories to attract economic activities. Consequently, a novel approach articulating the necessity of integrating the concept of sustainable development and territorial attractiveness is pertinent. The purpose of this study is to show to what extent an evidence-based analysis of sustainable development goals affects the classification of countries according to their level of development and their potential to move to a higher ranking of their performance. On the basis of panel data on 52 countries, monitored over the last ten years, and through the explicit consideration of "proxy" variables of sustainability, attractiveness, and economic growth associated with measurable indicators, the paper seeks to assess the main basic trends, to develop a typology according to the main new strategic orientation, and to analyse rank order changes in different homogeneous groups of countries. The results confirm the idea of a general two-dimensional and dichotomic trend towards (or against) sustainability and attractiveness and employment prospects. Our study confirms the widening divide between countries in terms of their socio-economic and environmental policies.

The future of the corporate office? Emerging trends in the post-Covid city

Abstract Part of an ongoing longitudinal study, this article provides evidence on the emerging impacts of Covid-19 on the demand for, configuration and role of offices in cities, drawing on primary data from semi-structured interviews with UK-based corporate real estate managers. The research is grounded on a ‘theory of change’ framework combining real estate, institutional economics and economic geography literature. Our findings confirm an acceleration towards hybrid working patterns. While some changes in the current use of offices may be temporary or more dynamic, other adjustments may be permanent (for example working from home, portfolio rationalisations) and trigger structural changes across cities.

Formal institutional context in global strategy research: A layer cake perspective

AbstractResearch summaryWe offer a novel view of formal institutions as a layer cake, suggesting a structural relationship between higher‐level and lower‐level institutions. In this context, inter‐layer conflict imposes complex pressures on multinational corporations (MNCs). These tensions have become more rife amid the growth in global connectedness and the commensurate increase in the importance of within‐country differences. Drawing on political science and economic geography research, we introduce regime type and the distribution of economic resources as conditions under which inter‐layer conflict is most likely to arise. We leverage two caselets to illustrate the inter‐layer conflict and the novel response options MNCs can deploy. Our perspective advances the theoretical understanding of intra‐national institutional diversity, laying the groundwork for future research at the nexus of institutional theory and global strategy.Managerial summaryFirms often encounter opposing pressures in their operating environments because institutions within the nation‐state impose misaligned policies. Despite acknowledging that such interactions exist, firms traditionally did not make it an integral part of their strategy. We demarcate how formal institutions cascade, forming a layer cake of relevant influences whereby the structural relationship between higher‐level and lower‐level institutions may impose complex pressures when in conflict. We turn to political science and economic geography literatures for explanations of when such conflict is most likely and offer a window into the responses by multinational firms using caselets within the COVID‐19 pandemic context. We offer new avenues for research on the ways in which institutions function to affect multinational firms in a global economy increasingly characterized by institutional complexity.