Importance Of Geographical Proximity Research Articles

The Internet’s Impact on Trade – An Analysis Applying the Gravity Theory

The gravity model of international trade analyzes synergistic trade flows based on the economic size and distance between two parts. The model suggests that trade tends to fall with distance due to geographical distance. This paper an analyzes the internet's impact on the geographical distance of the gravity model. Firstly, it briefly describes the gravity model focusing on the importance of geographical proximity. Secondly, it illustrates the introduction of the internet and changes that occurred by it specifically targeting intangible services developed through the introduction of the internet. Thirdly, it analyzes the internet's impact on the distance advantages with historical trade data. Lastly, this paper forecasts how the model will change due to an increasing information technology dominance economy

Patterns of child mortality in rural area of Burkina Faso: evidence from the Nanoro health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS)

BackgroundHalf of global child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding child mortality patterns and risk factors will help inform interventions to reduce this heavy toll. The Nanoro Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), Burkina Faso was described previously, but patterns and potential drivers of heterogeneity in child mortality in the district had not been studied. Similar studies in other districts indicated proximity to health facilities as a risk factor, usually without distinction between facility types.MethodsUsing Nanoro HDSS data from 2009 to 2013, we estimated the association between under-5 mortality and proximity to inpatient and outpatient health facilities, seasonality of death, age group, and standard demographic risk factors.ResultsLiving in homes 40–60 min and > 60 min travel time from an inpatient facility was associated with 1.52 (95% CI: 1.13–2.06) and 1.74 (95% CI: 1.27–2.40) greater hazard of under-5 mortality, respectively, than living in homes < 20 min from an inpatient facility. No such association was found for outpatient facilities. The wet season (July–November) was associated with 1.28 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.53) higher under-5 mortality than the dry season (December–June), likely reflecting the malaria season.ConclusionsOur results emphasize the importance of geographical proximity to health care, distinguish between inpatient and outpatient facilities, and also show a seasonal effect, probably driven by malaria.

Spatial Proximity and its Importance for Cooperation in a Tourist Region - Complementary Use of Social Network Analysis and Agglomeration Theory

Purpose. Evaluation of the importance of spatial proximity for undertaking business cooperation in a tourist region. Method. Agglomeration economy analysis was combined with the network approach (i.e. Social Network Analysis). The method of case study was used – cooperation between various entities (actors) in five tourist municipalities united in the “Beskid Five” agreement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 225 entities selected in purposeful sampling. Additionally, using the appropriate software, based on postal address and data on GPS coordinates of the location of the interviewed entities, were obtained. To analyse the data, some parameters of network analysis were used (i.e. the degree centrality – i.e. in-out and out-degree) and multidimensional data analysis. In particular, the logistic regression method was used, i.e. binary logic regressions were carried out in order to determine the significance of spatial proximity for undertaking cooperation and its intensity in a tourist region. In addition, Moran Ii local statistics were determined in order to measure the occurrence and direction of spatial autocorrelation (spatial correlation coefficient within Local Indicators of Spatial Associations, LISA). Visualisation techniques were also implemented in the work. Findings. In the research, it has been shown that spatial proximity is an important factor affecting cooperation in a tourist region, because it increases the likelihood of cooperation, although this relationship is not linear. Research and conclusion limitations. The study did not cover all entities from the region, but only the so-called key actors in a network. The region selected for research is so specific that the obtained results cannot be considered as representative for other regions in Poland or in the world. In addition, cooperation was analysed without division into various forms, which may also have influence on the obtained results. Practical implications. Entrepreneurs wishing to gain economic benefits regarding cooperation should consider the location and spatial arrangement of connections between potential partners of this cooperation, taking its various forms into account. In addition, by stimulating cooperation between entrepreneurs, local authorities should look at their (municipality office) location in the tourist region and the resulting spatial and functional structure of links between entities, which may determine the scope, intensity and level of effectiveness of the cooperation undertaken. Originality. To show the importance of geographic proximity with reference to intensity of cooperation in a tourist region, analysis of the agglomeration economies and social networks was combined for the first time. Type of paper. An article presenting the results of empirical research.

Revisiting the death of geography in the era of Big Data: the friction of distance in cyberspace and real space

ABSTRACTMany scholars have argued that the importance of geographic proximity in human interactions has been diminished by the use of the Internet, while others disagree with this argument. Studies have noted the distance decay effect in both cyberspace and real space, showing that interactions occur with an inverse relationship between the number of interactions and the distance between the locations of the interactors. However, these studies rarely provide strong evidence to show the influence of distance on interactions in cyberspace, nor do they quantify the differences in the amount of friction of distance between cyberspace and real space. To fill this gap, this study used massive amounts of social media data (Twitter) to compare the influence of distance decay on human interactions between cyberspace and real space in a quantitative manner. To estimate the distance decay effect in both cyberspace and real space, the distance decay function of interactions in each space was modeled. Estimating the distance decay in cyberspace in this study can help predict the degree of information flow across space through social media. Measuring how far ideas can be diffused through social media is useful for users of location-based services, policy advocates, public health officials, and political campaigners.

Social networks and creation of social capital in second-home localities

Second home tourism has major economic, environmental and social impacts on the localities in question. The aim of the presented study is to find out how second home tourism influences the social environment of a municipality, and whether and how it contributes to the creation of social capital and the knowledge transfer. It ensues from the use of relational data that links appear in the localities primarily on the neighbourly basis. In some cases, the contacts are also used in the place of permanent residence. As a result, the social networks and the knowledge that appear among the participants also have an impact outside a locality in question. The connection to permanent residents of a municipality is rather weak. One can see here an obvious link primarily to major actors or permanent residents living near second-home owners. When establishing contacts, this points out the importance of geographical proximity rather than the often accentuated role of the relationship “second-home owner versus permanent resident”.

Mobile Networks: Visualizing the Global Refugee Regime

This article identifies conceptual issues surrounding the visualization of refugee movement in relation to state borders. It argues that social-network-analysis software provides a tool for the creation of visualizations of human movement that are removed from geolocation. Such a method disassociates forced migration from preconceived notions about the importance of geographical proximity and the fixity of state borders. This article provides some brief examples of ways that these methods might be utilized to graph and visualize aspects of the global refugee regime. The global-scale, transnational conceptualization and new visualizations show networks of movement centered on new inter-state communities and highlights the role of non-state actors.

The Organizational and Geographic Drivers of Absorptive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical R&amp;D Laboratories

Scholars and practitioners alike now recognize that a firm’s capacity to assimilate and use know-how from external sources — what Cohen and Levinthal (1990) called “absorptive capacity” — plays a central role in innovation performance. In recent years, a common strategy pursued by companies to increase their absorptive capacity has been to locate new R&D facilities in close geographic proximity to technology “hotspots” like Cambridge, Massachusetts or the San Francisco Bay Area. Such a strategy is predicated on the assumption that geographic proximity facilitates absorption. Unfortunately, more than two decades after the publication of Cohen and Levinthal’s landmark piece on absorptive capacity, precious little is known about how different organizational strategies and managerial practices — including location choices — actually impact a firm’s ability to exploit external sources of know-how. A key barrier to empirical progress on this front has been a lack of direct measures of absorption. In this paper, we develop a novel measure of absorptive capacity that attempts to directly track the influence of external sources of know-how on the internal R&D activities on individual laboratories. We then use this measure to examine laboratory level differences in absorptive capacity and the degree to which a lab’s geographic proximity to a given knowledge base influences its absorptive capacity. To identify patterns of absorption, we exploit a quasi-natural experiment that has occurred in the pharmaceutical industry over the past two decades. Since 1989, a number of major pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, etc.) have chosen to locate new laboratories in one or more major life science hotspots (Massachusetts, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego County). Because these are de novo green-field labs, we have an unusual opportunity to study how the capabilities of the lab evolved over time, and whether those capabilities were influenced by the technological activities of the surrounding local scientific and technological ecosystems. Our sample includes 39 R&D laboratories (at varying degrees of distance from three major life sciences hotspots — Massachusetts, San Diego County, and the San Francisco Bay Area). Our findings indicate that geographic proximity is a significant predictor of how much know-how a lab absorbs from a given hotspot. The importance of geographic proximity is also shown to be increasing over time. However, our results also show significant residual variance at both the individual laboratory and company levels, suggesting an important role of managerial practices and policies in driving absorption. The latter finding was consistent with our field interviews of R&D executives from laboratories involved in our study. The study provides further evidence of the geographically bounded nature of knowledge.

User-Producer Interaction in the Brazilian Oil Industry: The Relationship between Petrobras and its Suppliers of Wet Christmas Tree

The objective of this work is to analyze the importance of the user-producer interaction for the innovative process of the Brazilian oil industry from the 2000s. To do so, we selected two of the three providers installed in Brazil that produce the set of valves used in the oil wellhead to control its production, set which is called wet Christmas tree (WCT), the Norway's Aker Solutions and the American FMC Technologies. The results of this analysis indicate not only the development of the oil industry in Brazil is marked by a strategy of cooperative innovation, but they also reveal the importance of geographical proximity and direct cooperation, especially between the centers of engineering and research and development of companies. Furthermore, these partnerships are not limited to the adaptation of products to new needs, but they also include the development of new systems.

European infrastructure networks and regional innovation in science-based technologies

We analyse the innovative activity of European regions in the fields of biotechnology and semiconductor technology. We explain regional patenting levels from publication levels within each region and nearby regions to account for local knowledge spillovers. We extend this approach by including connectivity measures for each region in order to indicate their position in the pan-European networks of Internet backbone providers, airline routes and global banks. We hypothesise that a region's position in all these networks contributes to its innovation capability as these networks provide high-quality and relative cheap access to digital information (Internet), fellow researchers (airlines) and financial resources (banks). The results show that connectivity indeed supports a region's patenting level in science-based technologies. In particular, we found that connectivity through the Internet backbone and through global banks enhance innovative activity, while airline connectivity does not. A second conclusion holds that while local knowledge spillovers are found to be very strong for patenting in biotechnology, this effect is found to be absent in semiconductor patenting. This result indicates that the importance of geographical proximity in generating knowledge spillovers is highly technology-specific.

The Importance of Proximity for the Start‐Ups' Knowledge Acquisition and Exploitation

This paper intends to verify the impact of geographical proximity on the processes of knowledge acquisition and exploitation by high‐tech start‐ups considering at the same time the role of both the social and cognitive dimensions of proximity. Our basic assumption is that proximity means a lot more than just geography. The findings from this research broaden our understanding of how start‐ups located inside an industrial cluster acquire knowledge from their customers and exploit it in an innovative way, underscoring the need to reconsider assumptions regarding the importance of geographical proximity between business partners during knowledge management.

What do European research collaboration networks in life sciences look like?

For scientists and policy-makers it is important to understand the value of networks and collaborations for scientific quality and commercialisation of research results. The interplay between funding mechanisms and research collaborations is of particular importance in this context. We explore this interplay with an empirical analysis of international research collaborations involving EU countries as manifested by co-publication patterns and participation in life science projects funded by EU Framework Programmes. Our data confirms the importance of geographical proximity, however, it also indicates that 'top-down' funding disbursed through FPs is related to collaborations that are more European despite encouragement of collaborations with non-European partners. In contrast, copublication patterns suggest that European researchers tend to co-author more with global, rather than exclusively European partners and that this tendency is on the rise. These findings shed light on the influence of different funding policies that seek to nurture more diverse and integrated research partnerships. (Less)

Do collaboratories mean the end of face-to-face interactions? An evidence from the ISEE project

Scientific collaboration encompasses two main issues: knowledge sharing and trust. Geographical distance has an impact on both. Our purpose is to test the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) sophistication on remote collaboration: do collaboratories mean the end of face-to-face interactions? We first analyse the importance of geographical proximity with regard to knowledge transfer and trust. For both, we address the main problems set by geographical distance and the answers provided by ICT. These technologies come in a rich variety in a ‘collaboratory’. They can be classified according to two criteria: their degree of synchronisation and the ‘quality’ of the communication cues. It turns out that the diversity of technical solutions can lead to firm solutions or palliatives to overcoming the barriers of geographical proximity. A case study in the field of space physics allows us to test our hypotheses.

Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment

Boschma R. A. (2005) Proximity and innovation: a critical assessment, Regional Studies39, 61-74. A key issue in economic geography is to determine the impact of geographical proximity on interactive learning and innovation. We argue that the importance of geographical proximity cannot be assessed in isolation, but should always be examined in relation to other dimensions of proximity that may provide alternative solutions to the problem of coordination. We claim that geographical proximity per se is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for learning to take place. Nevertheless, it facilitates interactive learning, most likely by strengthening the other dimensions of proximity. However, proximity may also have negative impacts on innovation due to the problem of lock-in. Accordingly, not only too little, but also too much proximity may be detrimental to interactive learning and innovation. This may be the case for all five dimensions of proximity discussed in the paper, i.e. cognitive, organizatio...

Innovation Processes and Proximity: The Case of IDEON Firms in Lund, Sweden

Increasing pressure on innovativeness and collaboration is supposed to strengthen the importance of geographical proximity in innovation systems. But simultaneously there are 'globalization forces' and information and communication technology (ICT) developments that stress wider contexts and different dependencies to place and distance. With case studies of innovative firms at IDEON Science Park in Lund, the article presents analyses of the importance of proximity, related to the kind of knowledge and collaborative arrangements involved in innovation processes. Scope for 'untraded interdependencies' is discussed as well as the possible ICT impact of these collaborative relations. Argument for a three tier innovation system is put forward and its implications for regional innovation strategies are, concludingly, discussed.

CHANGING PATTERNS OF REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: The Case of Canada Under NAFTA

Recently, the issue of regional and international trade flows has attracted increased attention. Papers by Helliwell and McCallum have stressed the importance of national borders in determining the nature of Canadian economic activity even when adjustments are made for distance and trade barriers. This article, using Provincial Economic Accounts data, estimates an almost ideal demand system to explain the interprovincial and international flow of goods, accounting for changes in relative prices and other factors that have arisen since the formation of NAFTA. The results allow conclusions to be drawn with respect to the importance of geographical proximity to the U.S. border, the influence of price and income elasticities, and the nature of the industrial/resource endowment mix of the province. The relevant elasticities allow for the examination changes to the internal and external trade patterns and to the differences which have developed in the various regions of Canada.

Geographical Proximity and the Transmission of Tacit Knowledge

Since at least the publication of Pigou's “The Economics of Welfare” (Pigou 1932) and Arrow's seminal article on “Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources of Invention” (Arrow 1962), most economic theorists have argued that “knowledge is expensive to produce but cheap to reproduce.” Following Hayek (1948) and Polanyi (1958), scholars working in the tradition of Austrian economists have dissented from that view by pointing out that if a good deal of knowledge, such as the price of gold, can be easily codified and transmitted, much important knowledge is tacit and dependent on the “particular circumstances of time and place.” One line of work that supports the Austrian view can be found in economic geography and neighboring disciplines where the geographic concentration of economic activity is explained, among other factors, by the importance of geographical proximity between individuals in the transmission of tacit knowledge. This paper therefore argues that the spatial agglomeration of economic activities constitutes a powerful vindication of Austrian insights.

Anthropometric and genetic distance between Gonds of Central India.

A morphological and genetic study was undertaken on five Gondi-speaking populations of Central India (Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra States). There has been no systematic biological study on this large Dravidian-speaking tribal group, 4 million in number, amounting to 13% of the total tribal population of India. Data was collected on 16 anthropometric measurements and seven genetic markers (blood groups, hemoglobin, G6PD and plasma protein polymorphisms) on the Raj Gonds, Kolams, Manne, Koyas and Plains Maria Gonds. Various genetic distance measures such as Mahalanobis's D2 and Nei's and Sanghvi's measures and cluster analysis techniques were used to determine the relationship between these groups based on anthropometrics and genetic variables. The statistical analysis revealed the Gonds to be a heterogenous group in both morphology and genetic characteristics. The morphological and genetic distances between these five groups when projected graphically revealed that the spatial distribution of these Gonds generally corresponds to their present geographical distribution. However, the actual relationships among each of the Gond populations show differences when based on these two biological variables, the possible reasons for this being discussed in the paper. The emphasis of this study is on the importance of geographical proximity in producing morphological and genetic similarity between populations, brought about by a short distance as well as similar geographical factors (such as soil, terrain, flora, etc.) drawing these populations together under a common ecocultural umbrella.