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Space is not an ontologically given entity; following this line of reasoning, the paper explores the concept of ethnic/immigrant entrepreneurship in Berlin relying on the yellow pages directory Gelbe Seiten – İş Rehberi (IR, published in German and Turkish). This particular yellow pages directory has become a spatial reflection of migrant entrepreneurial activities since 1996. It has also been playing a crucial role in the self‐representation of migrants after the fall of the Wall. In this context, the paper explores how individuals construct themselves as ethnic/immigrant entrepreneurs by using the IR, which serves as a networking tool for them. To achieve this goal, it looks at three advertisement strategies of entrepreneurs in the IR between 1996 and 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research about ethnic businesses primarily focuses on the urban context; yet, contemporary immigrants in North America have increasingly been settling and establishing new businesses in suburbs. This paper explores emerging suburban ethnic retail clusters in the Greater Toronto Area by comparing them to established urban business enclaves. Drawing on extensive field research, surveys, and interviews in more than 100 suburban Chinese and South Asian retail clusters, this paper explores entrepreneurial experiences in suburban retail spaces, the role of ethnic entrepreneurs in suburban placemaking, and the opportunities and constraints affecting entrepreneurs' interaction with other key players. It demonstrates the need to build on the mixed embeddedness model when exploring ethnic entrepreneurship in a suburban context, as well as the need to consider how the institutional framework plays a role in shaping ethnic retail places and the spatial and physical outcomes of ethnic entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Studies confirm an inverted U‐shaped relationship between age and entrepreneurship. This paper deepens the understanding of this relationship by analysing how the relationship varies across time and across different types of regions, aspects often overlooked in the current literature. An individual perspective is taken, and the probability of starting a firm is expected to increase as individuals' age but at a decreasing rate. The results show significant differences in the relationship between the age of individuals and the rate of entrepreneurship across time and space. The age‐entrepreneurship profile has shifted to the left over time such that individuals are younger when they start firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of the research on functional roles of European towns conducted by a group of researchers gathered around the ESPON project 'TOWN'. Building on the systematic analysis of the socio-economic dynamics of 31 European small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs), we identified three profiles of their local economies. The first profile is defined as a dominant 'residential' economy that mostly relies on local activities that satisfy the needs of people in an area (residents, commuters or tourists). The second profile corresponds to a dominant 'productive' economy based on the production of goods and services to be mainly exported and consumed out of its area. The third profile is the mixed type that is characterised by an important share of activities in productive and residential sector with a complementary 'creative-knowledge' dimension, based on entrepreneurship, creativity and collaboration in innovation. Moreover, we analysed the economic performance and the shift in profiles in order to detect in which way towns make choices between residential economy, competitiveness and innovation for their local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between international migration and entrepreneurship, drawing on data on around 300 return migrants to two West African states, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The paper reviews existing evidence on the role of entrepreneurship and small firm formation in promoting development in Sub-Saharan Africa, before setting out a model of factors that influence whether migrants contribute to entrepreneurial activity by registering a business after their return. Factors tested for their association with entrepreneurship include a range of individual characteristics, duration of stay and reasons for return, and the acquisition of financial, human and social capital while abroad. The analysis suggests that work experience abroad is the most significant predictor of entrepreneurial activity among the return migrants interviewed, although savings accumulated while abroad, reasons for return and the frequency of visits home while abroad are also significant factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on regional innovation systems (RIS) suffers from two research gaps: The lack of focus on the entrepreneurial dimension and the dominance of empirical studies on intraregional networks and linkages between innovative actors. Referring to the agenda set by Oinas and Malecki, this paper deals with both interrelated issues. It is shown that while intraregional connections are without any doubt of great relevance for the functioning of RISs they bear the risk of lock-in effects. The complementary importance of extra-regional relationships for the innovativeness of economic regions is emphasised. Entrepreneurial migrants play a crucial role in such relationships. This paper provides a discussion of the five dimensions of proximity recently introduced by Boschma. It is argued that geographical proximity is only one, but often not the most important dimension. For international connections of innovative actors within RIS, cognitive and institutional proximity might be even more relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The development of start‐up communities is seen as critical to the successful development of entrepreneurship in a region. However, it remains unclear what exactly start‐up communities are and how they can be facilitated. Ambiguity concerning the geographical scale and membership of start‐up communities leads to different conceptualisations. In this paper, we apply communities of practice (CoP) theory to understand how conceptualisations of start‐up communities work and how they can be facilitated. To this end, we qualitatively study start‐up communities in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, Australia. Our results show that start‐up communities that are confined to a particular workspace strongly resemble a CoP. Furthermore, many elements of CoPs can also be found in regional start‐up communities. Finally, we find that workspace communities have more direct and top‐down facilitation activities, while regional start‐up communities have more indirect and bottom‐up facilitation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign investment is of particularly importance in countries undergoing far-reaching economic transformation. Also the location of foreign investment throughout the country is very important for further regional development. Actual location decisions of investors are influenced by various factors, but it is rather obvious that behind these decisions there is also always a lack of information or a distorted view of potential locations and regions for investment. The aim of this paper is to indicate the image of Czech regions that foreign entrepreneurs construct and to understand the character of spatial perceptions of foreign entrepreneurs from various points of view in order to find out what main factors are influencing location decisions of foreign investors in the country. The paper provides a summary of preliminary results of the survey. It provides current mental maps of foreign entrepreneurs and the most important results of explanatory statistical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of innovative behaviour of firms in an urban European context. It amis to identify key factors for innovation at the local level, based on micro survey information from firms. In seeking prominent explanatory variables for entrepreneurial innovation in various classes of European cities, a particular multivariate method, Regime analysis, is employed. This special type of multi-criteria method appears to be a fruitful tool for comparative analysis and generates a wide range of interesting empirical results on innovation factors in European cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative research on gentrification is on the rise, especially since gentrification is no longer confined to historical, central neighbourhoods in First World countries, but also appeared in rural, new-built areas and Second World countries. In this paper we present our comparative approach to investigate gentrification processes in four European cities (Arnhem, Istanbul, Vienna, Zurich), which differs from previous studies in its use of assemblage theory as research framework. The multi-layered framework discerns three levels: 'metrics', 'interpretations', and 'practices'. We argue that many comparative studies mainly focus on metrics, while researching interpretations and practices instead - and how these three levels influence each other through processes of actualisation and counteractualisation - would enhance our knowledge on gentrification. In doing so, we aim to provide a precise account of the nested relations of different layers of empirical reality and thus respond to various calls in the debate to intensively examine 'geographies of gentrification'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the cluster model of local economic growth is model that became a message that is now a mantra. It is an approach that has extended its explanatory reach through the accretion of layers of contingency. The paper suggests seven major limitations that undermine the explanatory power of what is now a mesmeric policy prescription for local economic development. It neglects the imperatives of capitalism, underestimates of the impact of unequal power relations on business relationships, fails to incorporate time, fetishises proximity, treats entrepreneurship simplistically, promotes the chaotic concept of institutional thickness, and is limited by the chaotic concept of social capital. It is concluded that a more nuanced and empirically grounded approach to agglomerated local growth is needed and a set of research questions is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some time it has been argued that cities all over the world have become more entrepreneurial and increasingly competitive. Most research has focused on spectacular events in well-known metropolises, but far less is known about how smaller cities engage in competitive activities. This paper focuses on how, why and what Swedish cities hope to achieve by engaging themselves in hosting the tryouts to the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which provides an opportunity for a critical case study of place marketing and city competition in Sweden. The empirical material is based on interviews with stakeholders in the tryouts. Our findings show that the local authorities do not compete in the same way as suggested by the literature, but instead collaborate to a great deal. While there are various motives behind arranging a tryouts tryout, it is noted that whereas the ESC presents an opportunity for a host city to ‘place itself on the map’, hosting a tryout is often mainly seen as an opportunity to show the organisers of the event the city's potential for hosting other events in the future. Our findings suggest that the main outcome of hosting a tryout, an outcome that the local authorities seem content with, is having arranged a glamorous party for the local inhabitants. The paper concludes by discussing why competition was found to be less outspoken than the literature suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New firm formation is commonly seen as a representation of the entrepreneurial capacity of a region. However, there is also a group of new firms that is based on the replication of existing business practices rather than on the entrepreneurial introduction of new practices. Both groups of founding types have a role in the explanation of regional economic development. This paper displays the spatial and industry patterns of two types of new firm formation representing each function: individual foundings and organisational foundings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most recent media debate about a new ‘Turkish entrepreneurship’ in Germany triggered off the fundamental reflections on the necessarily critical conceptualisation of the relation between ‘culture’ and entrepreneurial action. The dominating concepts in the field of ‘ethnic business’, in which questions of cultural orientation in entrepreneurial action have been a central issue for some time, can serve as a starting point for this analysis. For understanding the term culture and the conceptualisation of culture in conjunction with entrepreneurial action, a few critical remarks and a shift in perspective are necessary. Contributions of economic geography inspired by the ‘cultural turn’, which shows alternative ways of thinking about the connection between culture and economy by using a new understanding of culture may be utilised here. Focusing on the group of ‘German-Turkish entrepreneurs’ and bearing in mind the idea of ‘transculturality in practice’ this paper will conclude with an outline of a number of conceptual considerations for action-oriented research on the relation between culture and entrepreneurial action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The residential neighbourhood has become more important as a business environment as a result of economic and societal developments. However, some neighbourhoods are characterised by relatively high out-migration of firms; disadvantaged neighbourhoods in particular. This suggests that there may be factors at the neighbourhood level that steer relocation behaviour of local entrepreneurs. In this paper, we investigate how entrepreneurs valuate location aspects, including social and physical characteristics of the neighbourhood, and how this valuation relates to planned or actual firm relocation. The results show that the neighbourhood plays only a modest role for 'being a (potentially) mobile firm'. Rather, relocation (propensity) results from growth ambition, and the most important reasons for both relocation and staying put are therefore the size and quality of the business premises itself or personal housing preferences. Policy aiming at retaining entrepreneurs in neighbourhoods is most successful if targeted at the supply of appropriate business space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, entrepreneurship among migrant minorities has increased significantly in the Netherlands. This paper addresses the key factors determining the economic position of migrant entrepreneurs in the urban economy in the Netherlands, with an application to Amsterdam. So far, little information on success conditions for migrant entrepreneurship is available, while quantitative knowledge on critical success factors (CSFs) is lagging far behind the rapid growth of migrant entrepreneurs in big cities like Amsterdam. The present study serves to fill this knowledge gap, by paying attention to the entrepreneurial behaviour of migrants, the role of their social networks, and the innovative potential of new growth markets in a modern city. In order to provide a solid assessment of CSFs for migrant entrepreneurs, and to understand business performance in a competitive urban environment, this study will investigate the entrepreneurial behaviour of migrants in Dutch cities from a micro-economic perspective. Due insight into individual entrepreneurial behaviour of migrants is needed to develop an urban business culture in which migrants are no longer a source of problems but of great socio-economic opportunities, both for the migrant groups concerned and the vitality of cities. Our research employs a comparative statistical analysis of empirical findings in the city of Amsterdam in order to map out opportunities, success conditions and bottlenecks for migrant entrepreneurs. Given our largely categorical (i.e. qualitative or soft) database, we will employ a qualitative causal pattern recognition technique, namely, rough set analysis, to systematically assess the conditions for successful entrepreneurship of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special dossier that explores the changing economic geographies of service firms and functions. The emphasis is on exploring recent developments in the theory of the firm and what this means for understanding how complex production systems are organised in time and space. There are three important building blocks: exploring interactions between the literatures of economic geography and international business; exploring the global sourcing of services and a critical analysis of clusters. This introduction addresses some of the tensions that exist between research that emphasises the importance of social networks in production systems and the contractual and legal structures that constrain the activities of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale urban regeneration projects become highly complex as they involve multiple actors with different expectations. In general, the implementation of such projects entails building governance regimes at the city or regional level, but this often means forging partnerships between public and private actors to serve as policy instruments. Each city government formulates its own strategy for coping with the complexities of various levels of policy-making, thereby establishing multi-level governance regimes. And each city has its own particular experience with the implementation trajectory: long or short, successful or unsuccessful. This paper focuses on how the complexities of multi-actor governance influence the implementation of these projects. The purpose is to show how the macro-level institutional context affects the project's success and to analyse the challenges posed by multi-actor governance. Comparative analysis of two old port regeneration projects, namely Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid in the Netherlands, and Het Eilandje in Antwerp, Belgium, reveals how similar challenges were dealt with in different institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the spatiality of transnationalism and meanings of borders as displayed in the tourism business sector operated by Chinese migrants in Europe. Drawing upon empirical research conducted from 1999 to 2002 and from 2006 to 2007, it will illustrate how Chinese migrants practise transnationalism and transculturality in their entrepreneurial activities. Instead of serving simply as a bridge between their two home economies, migrants engaged in the tourism sector are active and innovative agents in crossing and redrawing the borders of different geo-cultural spheres they are embedded in, producing modified tourism landscapes that suit the desire of their compatriot travellers. An examination of the spatiality of their business networks also suggests that transnationalism and diaspora studies should go beyond focusing only on ties between the sending and receiving societies. Furthermore, an analysis of the interactions among members of this business community from different places will exemplify the power of borders in the Chinese diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand's regions exhibit marked spatial variations in firm formation, with the urban areas being less entrepreneurial than the rest of the country, when the analysis controls for the varying sizes of regions. This empirical finding reflects differences in industry structures, with a greater presence of firm births in manufacturing industries and business services in more peripheral and less urbanised areas, especially on the South Island of New Zealand. Using the business demographic statistics (BDS) database by Statistics New Zealand we develop a regression model to explain spatial variations in firm formations over the period 2000–2005. The following explanatory factors are found to be of central importance for firm formations in the New Zealand context: concentration, firm size, population, population growth, income growth and specialisation. Implications of the findings for policy makers and politicians in New Zealand are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour market participation and the income of immigrants in the Canadian economy, both as employees and entrepreneurs, is investigated. Special attention is devoted to the situation of those who entered Canada as business immigrants, who have been admitted into the country due to their past accomplishments in managing and establishing businesses in other parts of the world. This programme is based, essentially, on the logic of globalisation, that success in one location can be replicated in another despite different economic and regulatory environments. Using the Canadian Immigration Database, which links the landing records of immigrants with their subsequent tax returns, the economic performance of different types of immigrants to Canada is explored. The data reveal that business immigrants have lower incomes and rates of entrepreneurship than would be expected; in contrast, refugees settling in Canada appear to have higher rates of participation in the Canadian labour market as well as higher incomes. This turn of events suggests that there are critical spatial limits to entrepreneurial success. More precisely, business acumen gained in one location may not apply in another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the European labour markets and the cultural-economic geography of flexwork. It states that when it comes to the use and popularity of flexible working arrangements in Europe, it can be ascertained that there are significant differences between countries and regions. It notes that in the new European Union member states, there are few legal obstacles to the establishment of temporary agencies. As revealed by research on the temporary staffing industry in the Czech Republic and Poland, this means that entrepreneurs have to operate in a legal vacuum, effectively copying regulatory best practices and organisation models as developed in the Netherlands and Great Britain, among others.

There is much attention for the role of entrepreneurship in enhancing regional or national growth. However, an absence of empirical entrepreneurship studies (i) including both national and regional measures of entrepreneurship and (ii) acknowledging the variation in types of entrepreneurship causes a gap in understanding the determinants and consequences of entrepreneurial behaviour and the actual spatial level involved. In this contribution we provide a first step towards bridging this gap. We use a large database from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) to create several indicators on regional, early-stage entrepreneurial activity and map these for 125 regions in Europe. Our preliminary results confirm the importance of making a distinction between low and high ambition entrepreneurship. We find, however, that regional variation in high ambition early-stage entrepreneurial activity is less pronounced as compared to overall early-stage entrepreneurial activity. This suggests that national forces are more important to growth and innovation aspirations than to general early stage entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local government initiative to attract colleges, in spite of being formally excluded from the higher education system, is shown to represent urban entrepreneurialism, in which strategies undertaken – reactive or proactive, competition or co-operation, and means of support – are influenced by location. However, such decentralised forms of local governance do not indicate a diminishing role of the central state, but rather reshape regulation – decisions reflecting greater pluralism, becoming more exposed to external pressures for market-oriented initiatives in high demand locations, and for publicly supported colleges in less attractive locations. Local entrepreneurialism is particularly influential at the intra-regional level, but saturation could emphasise the need to move from local entrepreneurialism to competitive regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can clusters of small and medium enterprises meet global competition? The point is not just to create jobs, but good work (decent conditions, autonomy, and opportunities to improve skills and build a career). Impiva, a Valencian regional government agency, has set up technological institutes for established industries, and local business innovation centres to back new projects, following the examples of Emilia Romagna (Italy), Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and Denmark, though Spain lacks the levels of trust between entrepreneurs found in those regions. The Institute for toys (AIJU) is in Ibi, a town which makes most Spanish toys but must diversify because of Chinese competition; so AIJU has become an all-purpose local development agency, like Baden-Württemberg's technology transfer centres. The Baden-Württemberg model – catering for established industries and diversification – can be adapted to local conditions. Places like Ibi can provide good work, if local firms keep some control over design, innovation and problem-solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although industrial restructuring in a resource region might appear at first glance to impact mainly on the predominantly male labour force, in practice it often results in a broader range of economic and social changes as women expand and intensify their entrepreneurial activities as home-based paid workers, and as shifts occur in gender divisions of waged and unwaged labour. The Corner Brook region represents an example of these transformative processes of change. Since restructuring in resource regions occurs in situ, it is necessarily contingent on local place-based geographies and histories, but its impact has profound implications for gender identity and social relations in economically marginalised regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of entrepreneurship assistance centres in Israel in the 1990s, triggered by the need to absorb mass-immigration, serves as an example for the geographic implications of the break from top-down approaches to regional development towards a pluralist model that involves a variety of national networks and local partnerships. A balance between cost effectiveness and social needs was achieved through the establishment of assistance centres by several organisations, each committed to a different set of principles. Demand-driven initiatives, led by broad coalitions, were common in core regions, while stronger parochial political culture and 'social needs' orientation of development initiatives reduced the prospects for formation of broad growth coalitions in the periphery. Unique core-periphery variations among immigrants increased the attractiveness of initiatives in the periphery. However, as the system matures, preimmigration core-periphery variations in entrepreneurial potential can be expected to be more influential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]