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Taking the golden 20 years of the Chinese leather industry as an example, this paper adopts a spatial panel model to accurately portray the characteristics of spatial evolution and the trend of development of agglomeration of the leather industry. This paper further systematically identifies the key driving factors of leather industry agglomeration, taking into account the time effect, spatial effect, and spatio-temporal effect at the same time. The results show that China's leather industry shows a shift from coastal areas to diffusion to inland areas. In terms of influencing factors, resource endowment and economic externality are the key force leading the agglomeration of leather industry. In addition, according to the results of group regression, it is found that innovation capacity and environmental regulation have become the main driving forces affecting the development of leather industry. Therefore, the government should carry out global planning according to the spatial pattern and transfer path of leather industry agglomeration. Based on the deep-level driving mechanism of industrial pattern evolution, specific industrial measures should be formulate to realize the development and promotion of leather industry in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of reshoring, defined as the relocation of previously offshored production activities back to the home country or to a neighbouring country, on the productivity of manufacturing firms. It uses data from the European Reshoring Monitor on European firms in the period 2014–18. Reshoring increased total factor productivity of small and medium-sized firms, but did not affect productivity of large firms. The positive effect was stronger for firms that had offshored production to some Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge economy – defined here as production and services based on knowledge intensive activities – is widely recognized to have accelerated knowledge production and spillovers through a deepening of collaborative networks that can extend over extensive geographical distances. However, limited by data availability, the geography of China's knowledge production and collaborative networks, segmented by different disciplines, has been little studied in economic geography or innovation studies. This paper draws on data on academic publications that were extracted from the China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database (CAJD) in order to construct knowledge production and collaboration networks for different disciplines in China. The results depict a series of maps that show that: (1) the 'hard' sciences (natural sciences and engineering) outperform much more than the 'soft' sciences (humanities and social sciences) both in article number and collaboration strength; and (2) large metropolises have overwhelming advantages in the terms of both paper production and the collaboration strength for all disciplines, despite varying among different disciplines. These uneven geographical patterns can be partially attributed to a high concentration of scientific resources in a few large cities, which was inherited from the Maoist period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how narratives influence the legitimation of new industries in peripheral regions. We contribute to the literature a discussion of the emergence of green industries in peripheral regions, but particularly to the emerging debate in evolutionary economic geography on the role of legitimation in the emergence of new industries. Based on an empirical investigation of narratives regarding onshore wind in the Finnmark region in northernmost Norway, we caution against the focus in the literature on 'successful' legitimation, arguing that to better comprehend how new green industries emerge in regions there is a need also to understand delegitimation of new industrial activities and to investigate unsuccessful path creation processes, not only paths that have come into being and where legitimation has been 'achieved'. Following from this we argue that our study on how representations (i.e., narratives) of emerging paths are linked to observable outcomes (e.g., delegitimation) teases out the need for further investigation of power relations, a topic that has received very little interest in research on regional industrial path development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the radicalness of industry path transformation in different geographical contexts by analysing the introduction of new technological trajectories within established industry paths. We use an analytical framework based on path dependence theory to conduct a comparative case study of the introduction of offshore farming technology in the salmon farming industry in both coastal Norway and Tasmania, Australia. We show that similar points of departure can lead to different path transformation radicalness. In each case, the transformation outcome will depend on the unique interplay between agency and regional structural components during windows of opportunity. The empirical analysis supports the importance of considering agency, regional structural components and global technology trends when investigating path transformation radicalness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity is one of the defining characteristics of complex adaptive systems - systems made up of heterogeneous agents whose interactions form a dynamic network resulting in emergent behaviour. Recent research shows that various types of diversity increase with the scale of the system. This paper uses ideas and methods from community ecology to define business types as functional traits and to calculate functional diversity as a measure of the economic diversification in an urban system. It asks how functional diversity changes with the size of the city within an urban region. Using Keihanshin Metropolitan Area in Japan as an example, the paper concludes that while functional diversity scales with city size, it reaches saturation due to the limitations of the business types classification systems. It argues that regardless of the observed saturation, the method can reveal the structural complexity of the city, showing what types of industries form its economy. It also discovers functions common to all cities in the region, and calls for further development of the method by introducing the multidimensional analysis and additional measures of diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary perspectives have been increasingly applied to understanding industry agglomeration. By tracking change over time, evolutionary perspectives shed a light on firm-level and sectoral changes that are contextualized within global industrial shifts. This paper addresses a research gap in evolutionary economic geography and regional science by applying network dynamics of industrial agglomeration though industry- rather than firm-level relations. It uses network analysis techniques to track the evolution of two industry agglomerations between 1993 and 2015. It focuses on the resource agglomerations in Brisbane and Perth, Australia, to evaluate changes that occurred over the period of the most recent commodities-driven economic boom period. By highlighting changes in forward- and backward- linkages within firms in resource economy agglomerations, it unpacks the shifting position of core industries in inter-industry networks. Results indicate that firms either consolidated around competencies or broadened towards greater flexibility, the extent depending on the local environment. Professional services and specific resource-related activities gained centrality, while manufacturing and various intermediary services such as transportation and warehousing lost centrality. This indicates that core competencies were built around key resource sectors (notably oil and gas), while companies 'shed' activities that were beyond their core competencies, particularly those that could be outsourced to outside firms. This paper ultimately proposes a novel way of tracking the evolution of industry agglomeration, and by focusing on the resource industry it provides insight beyond other studies focusing on manufacturing or services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on mapping and analysing the spatial patterns of unemployment in four Central European countries - Austria, Czechia, Germany, and Poland, on municipal level in 2010. Specifically, based on the geo-social differentiation patterns, we are searching for secondary axes stretching from the Blue Banana (the major European economic development axis running from London to Milan) towards Eastern Europe. Unemployment is supposed to approximate economic development, thanks to its close relation to GDP and other economic indicators. To study spatial patterns and development axes on a micro scale, we use the concept of spatial autocorrelation, specifically Moran's I and LISA analysis. While we analyse more than 44,000 units, the resulting maps are very detailed and difficult to interpret on small scales. In this paper, we take advantage of the opportunity to present large-scale maps (1:2,500,000 and 1:6,000,000), which are also more suitable for the analytical conclusions that follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The co-location and networking of firms and institutions, also known as clustering, positively influences the innovativeness of firms. The cluster literature provides a single-sided understanding of how clusters function due to an overemphasis in the literature on clusters in high-tech and developed economies at the expense of clusters in low-tech industries in less-developed regions. Applying social network analysis (SNA), this paper studies two furniture clusters in the Wielkopolska region of Poland. The findings demonstrate that: (1) the critical factor is the impact of institutionalization on the mechanisms of knowledge flows, Marshall's externalities and, in consequence, innovativeness of firms; and (2) the underlining clusters do not show a tendency to build cluster-external linkages, opposing the dominant premise in the cluster literature. In the absence of national and international relations, managers of small and medium-sized firms and local institutions are the main sources of novelty for the clusters at the sustaining stage of their life cycle. The findings pave the way for initiatives aiming at creating and developing knowledge networks in lagging and catching-up regions in Europe, particularly those specialized in low-tech sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by ongoing research into the cluster concept that considers dynamic features of economic development and the cluster life cycle, differences between traded clusters and local activity across different spatial scales are examined for Ireland. Using recent cluster definitions for Europe, this paper presents clustering patterns within the Irish economy from 2008 to 2012. We report on data requirements when applying the benchmark cluster definitions to Irish data. Integrating small, open economy features with life-cycle concerns, we focus on specific clusters in Ireland, along with their export performance, noting that appropriate cluster boundaries are neither regional nor national. Analyses indicate that while Ireland hosts a number of internationally competitive clusters, foreign-owned firms remain substantially more productive than indigenous enterprises. We identify the geographical location of these prominent clusters at the NUTS-3 regional level and highlight the role of regional features for differences in adaptive cycles of clusters. We identify a substantial portion (60%) of Irish regional wage variation relates to the different cluster mixes across regions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses data from the Scottish Household Survey to investigate urban–rural variations in life satisfaction in Scotland. It reviews the previous literature on spatial differences in life satisfaction and develops an econometric model that includes a range of factors previously shown to affect life satisfaction. Holding these factors constant, Scottish rural dwellers are found to have a significantly higher life satisfaction than city residents. Possible reasons for higher life satisfaction in rural areas are explored before finally drawing policy conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The New Economic Geography (NEG)'s agglomerative forces strongly determined the location of firms, in spite of policy intervention blatantly activist intended to reverberate the geography of production (during the communist regime). Recent models of geography and trade recognize a bijective interaction between NEG forces and comparative advantages, they fully explain productive specialization. Our interpretation of the Czech manufacturing is in accordance with the NEG and its recent integration with the comparative advantages stream. In the panel data float up some invariant characteristics enhancing the attractiveness of traditional industrialized territories. The estimates embody the population density and gravitational and agglomeration forces. The time-invariant characteristics are present in the most industrial regions, influencing the localization of manufacturing activity in these spots. In spite of the forceful influence of path dependence, the very manufacturing cores underwent a process of restructuration, adapting the old-fashioned specialization pattern toward a more coherent production tailored to local assets, endowments and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to advance perspectives on powerful incumbent firms in (new) regional industrial path development. Drawing on recent insights from transition studies, it is argued that this actor group - hitherto often portrayed in a rather one-sided manner - plays a crucial role in shaping the pace and direction of regional path development through agency oriented towards both change and maintenance. Building on systemic perspectives at the intersection of evolutionary economic geography and innovation studies, a particular emphasis is placed on incumbent firms' interventions to reconfigure or stabilize their surrounding regional innovation system to support their intentions. To this end, this article examines how incumbents exert their influence through various forms of power as means by which they promote or hinder regional industrial change. Empirically, the role of incumbent firms in three traditional automotive regions in Austria is investigated. It is shown how they leverage their power to propel the industry's digitalization and suppress its decarbonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking concepts from economic geography, this study decomposes locational factors as 'first-nature' and 'second-nature' geography, and argues that the second-nature geography, which is the concentration of entrepreneurial activities, helps entrepreneurs to discover entrepreneurial opportunities and gives them an incentive to integrate business with supporting activities in close proximity due to pecuniary and technological externalities. This study has taken the agricultural sector as the context of its research, and finds that the agricultural entrepreneurship literature has neglected the impact of the second-nature geography. Findings from the Netherlands show that the higher the concentration of entrepreneurial diversification in a region, the greater the likelihood that a farmer undertakes entrepreneurship on the farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do sparsely populated regions innovate in green policies? What enables or limits such innovation? The green policy literature often focuses on core regions, while territorial innovation models have long ignored regional state innovation. In this article we examine the drivers of public sector innovation in green policies in peripheral regions, often considered unequipped. The data come from the case study of Finnish Lapland's Smart Specialisation Strategy in relation to promoting a forest-based bioeconomy. In a context where climate change has become a major global challenge, and sustainable development an additional responsibility for local and regional governments, this article contributes to understanding the rationales for innovation in green policies from a regional perspective. Drawing from institutional economic geography, we argue that top-down approaches (Smart Specialisation) combined with scale and place-specificity (personal connections, environmental fragility, political will and natural resources endowments) play an important role in driving the governments of sparsely populated regions to innovate when translating and implementing green policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wealth of utility patent data has made this form of intellectual property (IP) protection the primary focus of the economics and geography of innovation. However, in addition to utility patents, the IP expressed in a firm's products or processes may also be protected via design patents, trademarks, copyright, or in non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. Recent research suggests that mixed modes of technological and non-technological innovation are associated with the most rapid firm growth and, thus, mixed-mode IP strategies may provide important insight for understanding the geography of innovation. If non-technological IP is an important complement to technological IP, then analyses focusing solely on the impacts of patents are misspecified. In addition, if the capability for pursuing these various tactics differs across the settlement hierarchy, then our understanding of the geography of IP is similarly distorted by the singular focus on patents. The objectives of this study are to examine how these tactics of protection are combined into IP strategies, how these strategies vary over the settlement hierarchy, how the different strategies are associated with different economic outcomes, and how these different strategic orientations may differentiate entrepreneurial ecosystems across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy's economic development since its unification in 1861 has been characterized by extensive regional inequality. Northern regions were the frontrunners of modern industrialization in the late 19th century, while southern regions never closed the gap. New Economic Geography (NEG) proposes market access as the main driver of regional income differentials. But is its effect homogeneous across regions? The NEG hypothesis is here for the first time considered for the north and the south of Italy separately in the period 1871–1911. Following previous work by the author, both domestic and total market potentials are taken into account as possible drivers of regional gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The results differ for the two macro-areas: in the south, both market potentials have a strong role in determining the levels of GDP per capita, but they do not affect the growth rates from period to period; and in the north, only domestic market potential is significant in both levels and growth rates. These results point to different dynamics at the sub-national level that should be further qualified by extending the analysis from the NUTS-2 to the NUTS-3 level. The policy implication is that market-oriented measures might not be effective for the most disadvantaged regions before other prerequisites for growth are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the cross-sectional association of three value orientations (self-direction, achievement and power) and level of gross domestic product (GDP) in 289 NUTS regions. Regional value aggregates, drawn from Schwartz’s Human Value Scale included in the European Social Survey, are taken to indicate value-based human capital. Regression analysis shows that self-direction, indicating independent thought, action and creativity, is a strong predictor for regional GDP after controlling for standard control variables and spatial autocorrelation. Additionally, analysis implements welfare regimes as indicators of larger socio-historic frames and finds significant geographical variations within these frames regarding the relationship between prevailing value climate and level of economic performance. The study contrasts perspectives from economic geography and cultural studies to the literature on alternative definitions and measures for human capital and argues that a synthesis of these perspectives can enrich one’s understanding of the economic geography in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Evolutionary thinking suggests that past knowledge accumulation influences future growth opportunities. Old industrial regions’ inherited knowledge is often described as obsolete. Particularly, blue-collar workers’ difficulties in redeploying skills have been stressed. This study examines whether the emerging offshore wind-energy industry in Bremerhaven, Germany, can draw on skills from local declining shipyards. Beyond Germany, this new industry has inspired policy-makers to hope for the renewal of shipbuilding centres. Insights from interviews reveal that the blue-collar skill bases of both industries overlap. Declining shipyards provided much-needed experience and skills to the nascent industry. This contribution underscores the fruitfulness of the perspective of related variety with respect to the development of old industrial regions. An overly sharp distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ knowledge may obstruct our view of potential growth opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We propose an analysis of the socio-economic development processes at work in territories at the scale of Frenchcommunesfrom 1806 to 2010. This is an extremely fine scale for such analysis, given that there are 36,000communesin mainland France. The diachronic dimension, spanning two centuries, makes it possible to consider the temporal depth of territorial development. But the primary interest is not so much demographics as the socio-economic dimension of these variations over two centuries. We have analysed demographic changes as the expression of the socio-economic processes that shaped French territory over two centuries. Dynamic mapping of long-term population shifts reflects the industrial expansion of certain territories, decline due to the end of traditional farming practices, the shock produced by two world wars, the Fordist period and the post-war boom; the subsequent impact of an increasingly globalized, metropolitan economy then becomes apparent. We thus identify, map and analyse several historico-socio-economic phases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]