Economic Geography Perspective Research Articles

Rural areas as winners of COVID-19, digitalization and remote working? Empirical evidence from recent internal migration in Germany

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic crises and increased inter-regional economic disparities. However, the catalyst effect that the pandemic has had on digitalization may change the traditional pattern of internal migration, in favour of rural areas. Using time-sensitive register data we explain changes in net migration rates of German districts from an economic geography perspective. We show that, since the beginning of the pandemic, rural regions benefited more from migration. In particular, younger and highly skilled individuals increasingly move to rural areas. This confirms that rural regions can benefit from increasing remote work, but these effects differ across region types and individual skill levels.

Institutional effects on family business internationalization: a systematic review

Abstract Family firms play a vital role in the global business landscape, significantly impacting their home countries GDP. These firms diverge from non-family counterparts in their internationalization strategies, yet they stand to gain substantial benefits from international expansion. Beyond economic considerations, family resources and values introduce non-economic factors that challenge traditional economic theories. This study leverages an institutional approach to illuminate the multifaceted influences shaping family firms’ internationalization, encompassing positive and adverse dynamics. The integration of institutional theory marks a recent shift in understanding family firm internationalization, encompassing institutional and economic geography perspectives. To foster discourse and guide future research, this paper systematically reviews peer-reviewed articles covering over a decade, from 2010 to 2023. It identifies formal and informal institutional elements, alongside economic geography factors, that either facilitate or impede family firms’ internationalization. This review underscores existing knowledge gaps at the nexus of institutional theory, economic geography, internationalization, and family business studies. Notably, the systematic literature review uncovered a limited corpus of only 41 articles, indicating the need for more research exploring the synergy between economic geography and institutional factors in the context of diverse internationalization strategies. Furthermore, the review highlights the underexplored terrain within social institutions and economic geography, revealing a notable gap in the extant research.

Family firms, hidden champions and regional development

Abstract This editorial introduces the nexus between family firms, hidden champions, and regional development from an economic geography perspective. Family firms constitute the backbones of most local and regional economies, and some of them are even so-called hidden champions, which are global leaders in their market niches. At the same time, both entities are spatial sources of heterogeneity able to empower regions with difficult-to-imitate competitive and locational advantages that originate from the stickiness of their economic actors. It is mainly an empirical task to prove if this regional distinctiveness results from the structures and embeddings that family firms and hidden champions stand for (e.g., regional persistence and local rooting), and from the practices how these entities are owned, governed, managed (e.g., long-term business relations with [local] suppliers, customers, labour force, international excellence). By outlining three infant research directions on family firms and hidden champions from an economic geography perspective, this editorial frames the field, introduces and locates the contributions in this special issue therein, and calls for a spatially informed view on this rising cross-disciplinary field.

Road Infrastructure, Supply Chain Costs Reduction, and Road Safety in Economic Geography Perspective

Purpose: While it is expected that road transport infrastructure may enhance supply chain cost reduction, the mechanisms and conditions under which road transport infrastructure may enhance supply chain cost reduction are less understood. Theoretical framework: Drawing insights from the economic geography perspective, and survey data from 359 senior managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana, we found support for the argument that road transport infrastructure is important in the quest to improve supply chain cost reduction. Methods: The hypothesized model was tested with survey data from beverage manufacturing firms in Ghana. The survey method is usually appropriate for strategic management studies. Results and Conclusion: Our findings also suggest that road safety does not just support supply chain cost reduction but serves as a transformative mechanism to reap superior supply chain cost reduction in a resource-constrained environment. Our findings make a contemporary contribution to the economic geography theory as well as important managerial guidance for managers in the supply chain management space in resource-constrained regions like SSA. Research implications: The outcome of this study offers an important extension to the frontiers of innovative literature in supply chain management. Originality/value: It also provides practical insight to practitioners in the manufacturing setting by emphasizing the need to pay crucial attention to road safety as well as invest in road infrastructure development in the quest to reduce supply chain costs.

Investigating Online and Physical Retailing with the Perspective of Traditional Economic Geography in the COVID-19 Era

It is crucial to understand the needs of consumers, producers, and intermediaries (retailers) in the context of the rapid growth of companies and organizations. The use of a supply chain management system can greatly enhance the efficiency of order transmission and receipt. However, it is unfortunate that management systems, particularly supply chain management, have not fully capitalized on the opportunities offered by today's technology-driven and intelligent world. This presents an interesting challenge for management systems focusing on sustainable development goals, especially during times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak and global spread of the coronavirus has exposed the vulnerability of the global supply chain. From the initial stages of sourcing raw materials to the production and distribution of goods, every step is susceptible to disruption. In light of this, companies must proactively anticipate potential issues and implement measures to restore and improve their supply chains. To raise awareness about this critical issue, it is important to identify the challenges faced by companies and businesses. This will enable us to develop strategies for improvement and recovery, both in online and physical retail, from the perspective of traditional economic geography. Supply chain recovery is of utmost importance and goes beyond crisis management, as it involves overcoming numerous challenges during the recovery phase. The severity and adverse effects of the pandemic may vary, making it crucial for businesses to carefully navigate the long-term and destructive impacts on their supply chains. Subsequently, the recovery of the supply chain in the post-pandemic era requires a comprehensive approach that encompasses both online and physical retail, taking into account traditional economic geography. Therefore, in the midst of an epidemic, identifying potential challenges in the supply chain and understanding their impact on post-disaster recovery strategies play a vital role. This understanding will inform the development of appropriate strategies to address these challenges, both in online and physical retail, from a traditional geographic perspective.

How does external environment impact emerging industrial development: An evolutionary development approach of the e‐sports industry in China

To increase the understanding of how the external environment impact the local industrial development, this study builds a conceptual framework of industrial evolutionary development by integrating evolutionary and developmental theories from the perspective of evolutionary economic geography. This study emphasised the combination of two mechanisms. The first evolutionary mechanism consisting of variation, selection and retention, and the diversity within and between enterprise clusters serves as the starting point for evolution. The external environment selects and retains the most competitive enterprises under the mechanism of selection. The second developmental mechanism is the influence of the external environment on enterprises. The external environment screens and affects the development of firms at and across multiple levels, same level and across levels. Based on the case studies of the e‐sports industry in China, this study finds that technological development has driven the transformation of the e‐sports industry. Additionally, location cost, spatial proximity, local policy, urban strategy and national planning have been identified as crucial factors that influence the location choice of the e‐sports industry. This study highlights the importance of paying more attention to environmental dynamics in the research and practice of industrial evolution.

Process and mechanism of urban place making from the perspective of cultural and economic geography: The case of Dongguan Tea Warehouse

Process and mechanism of urban place making from the perspective of cultural and economic geography: The case of Dongguan Tea Warehouse

A panel fsQCA investigation on European regional innovation

Taking an evolutionary economic geography perspective, we build on literature on innovation modes, the aim of this study being to explain variations in SME innovation performance across European regions over time. Drawing on five waves of data from the EU Regional Innovation Scoreboard between 2011 and 2019, our sample includes 221 regions across 27 EU Member States, as well as Norway, UK, Serbia, and Switzerland. We apply nascent panel fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to explore how different combinations of SME innovation modes explain innovation performance across different EU regions (i.e. geographical scope) as well as within different EU regions over time (i.e. temporal stability). Findings show that whether DUI or STI modes are more effective in the context of SMEs crucially depends on the timeframe considered, but also the geographical location of SMEs. The study offers novel insights into the diverse and complex nature through which regional innovation evolves over time, advancing understanding on regionalization as well as temporality of SME innovation modes in Europe. It also provides an important basis for discussing innovation policy across Europe.

Influence of political risk environment in neighboring countries on FDI in host countries: the moderating role of green governance in neighboring countries.

This study examines whether political risks in neighboring countries affect foreign direct investment (FDI) by Chinese firms in host countries. Grounded in the perspective of new economic geography, it employs panel data comprising China's FDI across 37 countries along the Belt and Road, spanning from 2003 to 2021. It expands conventional research, which typically focuses on the two-country model, to include a broader examination involving third countries. Utilizing the spatial Durbin model, this study reveals that China's FDI in countries along the Belt and Road is affected by the host country's political risk environment and the spatial spillover effect of political risks from neighboring countries. Green governance practices in neighboring countries regulate this relationship. The results demonstrate that China's FDI in countries along the Belt and Road reveals a risk-averse tendency, with a preference for investing in countries characterized by relatively low overall political risk. After taking spatial factors into consideration, the spatial spillover effect of political risks is significant, as political risk levels in neighboring countries stimulate FDI from Chinese enterprises in the host country. As an effective way to mitigate ecological and environmental risks, green governance also shows significant spillover effects. By strengthening green governance, that can weaken the stimulating effect of political risks from neighboring countries on FDI inflow to host countries. Consequently, investors perceive fewer political risks in neighboring countries and are inclined to invest in those with higher levels of green governance. These research findings provide insights into Chinese investors to assess and mitigate political risks in countries along the "Belt and Road."

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.

Density, Division and Distance: Understanding China’s Urban Land-Use Change from an Economic Geography Perspective

Density, Division and Distance: Understanding China’s Urban Land-Use Change from an Economic Geography Perspective

An Empirical Analysis on the Related Variety Dynamics of Regions in Turkey from the Perspective of Evolutionary Economic Geography

İlişkililik ve bölgesel çeşitlenme konusu son 15 yılda ekonomik coğrafya ve bölgesel kalkınma alanında en çok tartışılan konuların başında gelmektedir. Bu iki kavram, bir yandan bölgelerin büyümesinin ve farklı ekonomik faaliyetlere çeşitlenmesinin kaynaklarını açıklarken, öbür yandan endüstriyel gelişmenin bölgelerde nasıl ortaya çıktığını ve zaman içerisinde nasıl değiştiğini ve dallandığını ortaya koymaktadır. Bu kapsamında çalışma evrimsel ekonomik coğrafya literatüründe ön plana çıkan İlişkililik konsepti bağlamında Türkiye’de illerin ilişkili çeşitlilik ve bölgesel çeşitlenme dinamiklerinin incelenmesini amaçlamaktadır. 2012-2017 döneminde illere ait ürün bazında ihracat verilerinin kullanıldığı çalışmada entropi yöntemiyle ilişkili ve ilişkisiz çeşitlilik endeksleri hesaplanmıştır. Analiz sonuçlarına göre ilişkili ve ilişkisiz çeşitlilik değerleri bakımından iller arasında önemli heterojenlik gözlemlenmekle birlikte metropollerin hem ilişkili hem de ilişkisiz çeşitlilik bakımından yüksek değerlere sahip olduğu görülmektedir. Ayrıca bölgelerin ihracat portföyünün çeşitlenme karakteristiği incelendiğinde, illerin ağırlıkla mevcut üretken yapısı ile ilişkili ürünlere doğru çeşitlenme eğilimi olduğuna yönelik ampirik bulgular elde edilmiştir. Çalışmanın sonuçları, Türkiye’nin bölgesel kalkınma politikası ve akıllı uzmanlaşma stratejileri için önemli ipuçları sağlamaktadır.

Internet Plus, Industrial Transformation, and China’s Evolving Urban System

ABSTRACT With the emergence of new and advanced information and telecommunication technologies, Chinese cities are encountering significant changes in their development dynamics. This study examines the spatial pattern of emerging industries under the influence of new technologies within the context of China’s “Internet Plus” initiative. It constructs a theoretical framework from an evolutionary economic geography (EEG) perspective and highlights the interdependence between the Internet Plus economy and urban systems. The analysis finds that the development of Internet Plus in cities intensifies the spatial agglomeration of new economic resources, and results in industrial transformation led by only a few large cities and spatial polarization within the urban system. However, advances in Internet technologies also provide a window of opportunity for smaller cities, and local industrial bases and relevant specializations play a crucial role in this process.

Digital transformation in the world city networks’ advanced producer services complex: A technology space analysis

The Advanced Producer Services (APS) sector, long considered to be the vanguard of the knowledge economy and world-city formation, is undergoing a digital transformation. Digital transformation entails an increased engagement with digital technologies in the operation, product offerings and strategies of APS firms, with potentially transformative implications. Such digitization processes are well-established in the morphing of finance into FinTech, with the other APS sub-sectors now allegedly catching-up as evidenced by the arrival of LegalTech, AccountTech, RegTech, PropTech, and AdTech. Moreover, the digital transformation could imply that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) services are again becoming central to the APS complex after two decades of being largely omitted from world city research. Adopting an evolutionary economic geography perspective, we introduce a new approach that utilizes near real-time data sources to compare local technology spaces with the global picture of digital transformation in world cities. Building a dataset containing information from 40,754 APS start-ups and scale-ups derived from Dealroom.co, this paper explores the geographically uneven digital transformation of the APS sector across European and North American world cities. This allows gauging the extent of digital transformation within APS sectors for each selected city, develop new understandings of the division of labour between world cities, and highlight where sector coalescence between APS sectors is occurring and is more likely to occur. In the process we develop new technological indicators of world-cityness that can be used alongside the classic world city connectivity indicators.

An economic geography perspective on city diplomacy

City officials increasingly maintain relations with foreign stakeholders, both public and private, a practice that is generally referred to as city diplomacy. In the past, city diplomacy activities focused on bilateral cultural and knowledge exchanges. Although this type of collaboration still exists, contemporary city diplomacy has become more dynamic and diverse, and increasingly includes an economic dimension. In addition, many cities currently prioritise becoming involved in a variety of multilateral inter-urban networks. Despite wide-ranging conversations on the challenges and opportunities of these new types of city diplomacy, theoretical reflections regarding the underlying processes and the potential consequences remain largely absent from the literature. In this article, we argue that the city diplomacy literature can therefore be enriched by engaging with concepts and debates developed in economic geography in two main ways. We first elaborate on contemporary varieties of urban entrepreneurialism and the extent to which these correspond with city diplomacy practices. We argue that city diplomacy contains elements of both traditional entrepreneurialism and managerialism. Second, we look at city diplomacy through the lens of uneven development, hypothesising that city diplomacy may entail a self-reinforcing effect in terms of enhancing socio-spatial differences between ‘superstar cities’ and ‘places that do not matter’ respectively.

Audit Committee Chair’s Geographic Distance and Earnings Quality

This paper empirically examines the relationship between the geographical distance of audit committee chairs(ACCs) and corporate earnings quality by taking A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2018 as samples. It is found that the geographical distance between ACC’s work place and the operation place of listed companies can significantly reduce earnings quality, and the farther the geographical distance, the worse the earnings quality. In addition, the external audit conducted by the Big4 auditors can significantly suppress the impact of geographical distance on earnings quality. Further analysis found that there is a partial mediation effect in the quality of internal control. The research conclusions of this paper provide a new idea for for companies to appoint ACCs. The research on accounting and financial issues from the perspective of economic geography is refined to the field of audit committee, which enriches the research literature on factors influencing the functions of ACCs. It is of great significance to improve the performance of the committee, the long-term development of the company and the protection of investors’ interests.

The Evolutionary Process and Mechanism of Cultural Landscapes: An Integrated Perspective of Landscape Ecology and Evolutionary Economic Geography

Cultural landscapes are joint masterpieces of man and nature with outstanding universal value. Adequate knowledge of their evolutionary process and mechanism is crucial to their development, protection, and management. However, theoretical understanding about such has been limited as existing studies tend to focus on the descriptive and interpretative analysis of the evolutionary process and pay less attention to the underlying mechanism of the process. Integrating the traditional perspective of landscape ecology in cultural landscape research and theories of path dependence and path creation in evolutionary economic geography, this paper constructs a triple-layered integrated analytical framework of cultural landscape evolution and applies the framework to empirically examine the cultural landscape evolution of Mount Lushan. To grasp an accurate and full picture of the process, field observation and historical data collection were carried out, and a combination of thematic analysis and chronological organization was conducted. The research finds that the cultural landscape evolution of Mount Lushan has experienced three stages, i.e., coexistence and mutual influence of multiple cultures, conflict and integration of Chinese and Western cultures, as well as landscape transformation, revival, and expansion. Such evolution is a non-linear, dynamic, and complex process across which the elements, functions, and patterns of landscapes were constantly constructed and reconstructed. Fundamentally, it is the result of the synergistic effect of path dependence and path creation, and is driven by the interplay of the behavior of associated actors and the change of contextuality. The findings of this study can provide some strategic references for the management practice of cultural landscape heritage sites.

High speed rail and corporate social responsibility performance: Analysis of intra-regional location and inter-regional spillover

This paper aims to reveal whether high-speed rail (HSR) can affect corporate social responsibility (CSR). First, based on difference-in-differences (DID) model, it is found that HSR promotes CSR, and the characteristics such as urban HSR kilometers (HSRM), number of cities directly connected by HSR (HSRL) and number of HSR stations (HSRS) also show a positive correlation with CSR. Second, by setting cross-effect model, it is found that HSR promotes monetary capital responsibility (MCR) by increasing government supervision pressure, promotes human capital responsibility (HCR) by promoting industrial agglomeration, and it promotes social capital responsibility (SCR) by strengthening financing screening function. From the perspective of economic geography, this paper analyzes intra-regional HSR station location effect and inter-regional CSR spillover effect. Third, through sub-sample regression, this paper analyzes the impact of intra-regional HSR stations on CSR. As HSR station-firm distance is within 10 km, HSR inhibits CSR; HSR promotes CSR as the distance is within 10–150 km; HSR inhibits CSR as the distance exceeds 150 km. Fourth, analyze the impact of inter-regional HSR on CSR spillover, HSR has a positive impact on CSR spillover, while HSR accelerates negative spillover of MCR and HCR. This study provides a theoretical basis for increasing CSR from the perspective of HSR construction.

The Digital Economy and the Regional Economic Gap: An Inverted U-shaped Relationship

As a new economic form, the digital economy is profoundly changing China, and clarifying the relationship between the digital economy and the regional economic gap is of great practical significance for coordinating regional economic development. Based on the perspective of new economic geography, the digital economy is incorporated into the core marginal model, and the impact of digital economy development on the change of regional economic gap under long-term equilibrium conditions is deduced Provincial panel data are used to support this. The study found that with the continuous development of the digital economy, the regional economic gap showed an inverted U-shaped trend of first expanding and then narrowing; Considering regional heterogeneity, the inverted U-shaped impact of the digital economy in the eastern, central and western regions on the regional economic gap is still obvious. Finally, this paper puts forward policy suggestions from the perspective of "the digital economy provides a solution to alleviate the imbalance and incongruity of regional development".

An Assessment of Trade Integration Focusing on Export-Led Growth Strategy for Sarawak: An Economic Geography Perspective

An Assessment of Trade Integration Focusing on Export-Led Growth Strategy for Sarawak: An Economic Geography Perspective