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Both theoretical and empirical research studies the factors influencing firms' location choices. This paper presents a new viewpoint by considering relationship continuity to explain small‐scale relocations and relocations of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent the majority of firms. The influences of firms' relationships with financing institutions are studied using a two‐stage nested logit model. Consequently, the positive effect of relationships on location choices is revealed and the factors preventing firms from moving are described. The model is valid for estimating relocations to medium‐sized cities, and the influences on shrinking firms as opposed to expanding firms are especially strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border effects have long been studied and are a central element of EU regional policies. While most literature takes a macroeconomic approach, this paper adopts a microeconomic one, studying the impact on firm productivity in border areas. The empirical analysis, on Italian land borders, employs a novel two‐phases double‐matching design, which considers firm‐level characteristics as well as the territorial capital of municipalities where they locate. Results suggest that border effects are not limited to territories close to the border but affect larger areas. Furthermore, they are significant and negative in urban areas, while they are insignificant in peripheral areas which are characterized by low accessibility and territorial capital endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines empirically the economic relationship between local labour market size and firm returns to training. Anchoring in the literature of micro‐foundation of agglomeration economies, we suspect that this relation is driven by two mechanisms: (i) labour pooling which should positively influence the returns to training through matching and learning effects and (ii) the risk of labour poaching, which tends to reduce the returns to training in larger labour markets. Our estimates, based on a large sample of French industrial firms, reveal that returns to training are increasing with the labour market size, suggesting that labour pooling dominates labour poaching effects. On average, returns to training lie between 6.7 and 7.7%, more in line with the microeconomic literature on education than previous studies focusing on training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the influence of agglomeration and spatial sorting on wages in Brazilian cities. The empirical strategy is based on a two‐step estimation. The first step estimates a wage equation with the observed characteristics of workers and firms and location effects. The second step decomposes the location effects into employment density and fixed effects of firm and worker. We estimate an urban wage premium for a developing country with the simultaneous inclusion of worker and firm fixed effects, instrumental variables, and nighttime lights. We find agglomeration effects of 4.3–5.7%, which are larger than those obtained for developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of Uber, the world's largest ride‐hailing firm, on congestion. Drawing on data from European cities for the period 2008 through 2016, I find a negative impact of Uber on congestion. The estimated impact in the baseline regression is −3.5 percentage points, but it is higher in cities that do not impose strong regulatory restrictions to ride‐hailing services. In addition, the negative impact of Uber on congestion is only statistically significant in denser cities. The Uber effect is gradual given that its impact increases over time. Finally, I find suggestive evidence that the potential endogeneity bias underestimates the negative effect of Uber on congestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media are an important growth opportunity for firms, especially small‐sized ones operating in peripheral and lagging regions. In this paper, we investigate not only whether firms are able to take this opportunity, but also if they are able to face the challenge of adopting social media at a professional level to obtain a significant economic impact, measured in terms of exporting activities. Exploring the Italian case, our empirical study indicates that smaller firms in lagging areas are more likely to adopt social media but at the same time less likely to use them at a professional level. This reflects poor strategic targets of social media adoption and lower probabilities of entering international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at an understanding of acquisition processes in a strongly industrialized and export‐oriented economy in Central Europe. Drawing on a proximity framework and behaviour theory, the paper investigates that the geographical proximity dimension is more influential than the cognitive proximity dimension. At the same time, cognitive proximity matters more for foreign firms investing into the economy than for domestic acquisitions. While the role of cognitive proximity diminished during the economic crisis, geographical proximity keeps its importance throughout the economic cycle. Moreover, cognitive proximity has become more important for acquisitions of large companies and less for SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian economy is characterised by a large number of micro‐firms and small firms and by a long‐lasting gap between North and South Italy. Therefore, global shocks – such as the Great Recession – have had a heterogeneous impact at the local level: the collapse in private demand was unequally distributed across different products, services and regions. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to evaluate the impact of the Great Recession on firm's survival for the universe of Italian firms in the light of two relevant indicators: local exposure to crisis and local demand shocks. The results suggest a strong negative impact of local demand shocks on the survival of firms, whereas the degree of exposure to the crisis generally has a weak effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which firms perceive different dimensions of proximity to be important for the formation of their interactions with universities. Furthermore, it investigates whether the importance of the different types of proximities varies depending on the type of interaction—be it about knowledge exploration, knowledge exploitation, competence enhancement, advice‐seeking or marketing. Using data from a survey of 1,200 Norwegian firms, we find that most managers believe cognitive, institutional, social and geographical proximity were important for their decision to collaborate with university partners and that the importance of proximity types varies depending on the contents of the interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The effectiveness of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) as instruments of innovation policy has generated thriving debate among academics, practitioners and policy makers. A gap in the existing literature on STPs is that research mostly does not consider STPs' heterogeneity. The present paper aims at filling this gap, analysing the influence of different STP characteristics on their tenants' performance. Using data on 849 firms and 25 STPs from the 2009 Community Innovation Survey for Spain and a survey of STP managers respectively and after controlling for a wide set of firms characteristics, we find that: (i) firms located in very new or longer established STPs show better innovative performance; (ii) the size of the STP and its management company positively affects the innovative performance of tenants while services provision has no effect on firms' achieving better results; and (iii) firms in less technologically developed regions benefit more from location in an STP. Theoretical, policy and managerial contributions of our research are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of corruption on the business environment in Vietnam. Our survey of firms conducted in Vietnam suggests that corruption is perceived as the most impactful business obstacle for their operation. It was also found that corruption has a significant negative association with the overall satisfaction of the business environment in Vietnam, which supports the hypothesis that corruption has a "sand the wheel" effect on firms' business activities. Given these results, it is urgent that the Vietnamese public authorities accelerate efforts in mitigating this issue. Although this paper sheds light on the importance of corruption, it would be useful to conduct follow‐up studies examining corruption and its impact in more detail. Such studies could be conducted in segments that most severely suffer from corruption according to our survey, that is, medium‐sized enterprises in the hotel/restaurant and construction sectors, Hanoi based, and Vietnamese owned firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ramen noodle shops are Japan's most popular category of restaurant. Yet within this ubiquitous, diverse, and highly competitive segment of the dining sector, particular clusters of restaurants stand out. These agglomerations are known as ramen gekisenku-ramen restaurant fierce battle zones. Through an examination of ramen-specific media and maps (magazines, comics, food blogs, university student handbooks, etc.) the paper classifies these clusters into three types: i) regional ramen-style agglomerations typical of small cities; ii) metropolitan neighbourhoods with concentrated diverse clusters of restaurants; and iii) purposely planned ramen theme parks. Each type has different morphological characteristics with divergent potentials for variation, innovation, and evolution. The paper argues that ramen's variety is a product of its geography, while suggesting that the circulation of place-based vernacular ramen knowledge, in the form of lore, stories, and other geographic cues sustains its capacity for innovation, most noticeably in the crucible of metropolitan ramen clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show that the relationship between trade liberalization and firm productivity is sensitive to the method used to estimate the production function. We estimate the productivity of Colombian manufacturing plants using the methods of Levinsohn and Petrin, Ackerberg et al., and Gandhi et al. and at times come to surprisingly different conclusions about firm productivity growth after the liberalization. Results from a growth decomposition exercise and from a quantile regression model reinforce the dissimilarity of results across methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to better understand the significance of spatial context conditions and personal attributes for early-stage entrepreneurship. We combine individual with regional and national level data using multilevel analysis to test our hypotheses. We differentiate between two phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between general and ambitious entrepreneurship. First, we show that both the national and the regional context significantly impact individual entrepreneurial activities. Second, individual level characteristics exert the greatest overall influence, but the direction of this influence is not stable. Third, the impact of the three levels varies across the different phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between different types of start-ups. Fourth, we demonstrate that cross-level interactions between individual characteristics and spatial context factors are important in explaining entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a non-linear hyperbolic demand function in a spatial shipping model. We show that, in contrast with the linear demand case, dispersion of firms emerges in equilibrium both when the firms compete through quantities and when they compete through prices. Further, the impact of the marginal production costs on the degree of firms' dispersion in equilibrium is positive when firms compete with prices, and it is inverse U-shape when firms compete with quantities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the size distribution of exporting and non-exporting firms in a panel of Chinese provinces. The power law exponents of exporting firms are significantly less than those of non-exporting firms. The average power law exponents fell from 0.74 in 1998 to 0.64 in 2007 for exporting firms, and from 1.03 in 1998 to 0.83 in 2007 for non-exporting firms. Further analysis showed that credit constraints have a significant negative effect on the exponents of the size distribution of exporting firms, suggesting that smaller firms are more credit-constrained than larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an extended case study of Japan to illustrate how surnames, or family names, can be used as a basis for regionalization. We undertake a comparison between inductively surname regions of Japan with areal geographies based upon both contemporary and historical prefecture (administrative) units. The work is seen as using highly disaggregate framework data to evaluate the integrity of the areal units that are used in regional science. It also is relevant to understanding population distributions, past and present, and the consequences of local, regional and national residential mobility and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the location choice of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China, shedding special light on the role of agglomeration of same-nationality firms. We examine how this role differs according to firms' productivity. Furthermore, we compare the location choice of Japanese and Taiwanese MNEs in China, taking into consideration that Taiwanese MNEs experience less uncertainty in investing in China due to Taiwan's linguistic and cultural advantages. When considering firms' productivity, we find that less productive Japanese firms prefer to locate close to larger same-nationality agglomerations while there are no differences in location choices in the case of Taiwanese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study that uses multilevel modelling to analyse regional influence on the decision to invest in innovation activities of firms in a single developing country, Ecuador. Our results indicate that the decision to invest in R&D and in other innovation activities are conditioned by the region in which the firm is located. Regional loan volume, orientation towards knowledge exploitation and intra‐regional‐sectorial R&D spillovers are positively associated with both types of innovation activities, while regional levels of co‐operation and inter‐regional R&D spillovers are only positively associated with the probability of investing in other innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the extent to which regional institutional quality shapes firm labour productivity in Western Europe, using a sample of manufacturing firms from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, observed over the period 2009–2014. The results indicate that regional institutional quality positively affects firms' labour productivity and that government effectiveness is the most important institutional determinant of productivity levels. However, how institutions shape labour productivity depends on the type of firm considered. Smaller, less capital endowed and high‐tech sectors are three of the types of firms whose productivity is most favourably affected by good and effective institutions at the regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number knowledge-related challenges may complicate the work in global software development (GSD) projects. In practice, even a small amount of missing knowledge may cause an activity to fail to create and transfer information which is critical to later functions, causing these later functions to fail. Thus, knowledge engineering holds a central role in order to succeed with globally distributed product development. Furthermore, examining the challenges faced in GSD from a cognitive perspective will help to find solutions that take into account the knowledge needs of different stakeholders in GSD and thus help to establish conditions for successful GSD projects. In this paper, we will discuss these challenges and solutions based on an extensive literature study and practical experience gained in several international projects over the last decade. Altogether, over 50 case studies were analysed. We analysed the challenges identified in the cases from a cognitive perspective for bridging and avoiding the knowledge gaps and, based on this analysis, we will present example solutions to address the challenges during the GSD projects. We will conclude that through understanding both the nature of GSD and the KE challenges in depth, it will be possible for organizations to make their distributed operations successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue compiles recent applications of soft-computing techniques for managing enterprises within industrial and environmental sectors. Additionally, a variety of soft-computing techniques have been applied, such as deep learning, random forest, particle swarm optimization, clustering, and metaheuristics among others. The new modified PSO model for the inventory-production system in a unique optimization model is presented in this paper. [Extracted from the article]

Despite that previous studies have examined factors that affect location decisions of enterprise R&D investments, they have not investigated if regional industry structures play a role. Responding to this research gap, we analyse data from Norway and find that location in regions with unrelated, diversified, and fragmented industry structures increases both the probability and amount of enterprise R&D investments. Location in regions with related and complementary industry structures, on the contrary, has no effect. We further find that location in populous regions spanning a large geographical area increases the probability of enterprise R&D investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We demonstrate that multiple cognitive dimensions exist between employees in knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) and that these dimensions interact in their influence on plant performance. Knowledge and cognitive distance are measured as formal knowledge and industry experience. Pooled OLS regressions with year, industry, and region‐fixed effects are used to estimate the impact on plant performance. The results suggest that the commonly found negative impact of similarity in formal knowledge on plant performance may be reduced by high human capital ratios or high levels of similarity in experience. Moreover, the organizational structures associated with single‐plant and multi‐plant firms, generate different plant performance outcomes of knowledge variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines firms' decisions to collaborate with universities in their region as opposed to non-regional universities, focusing on the role of collaboration objectives. Through a survey of a representative sample of manufacturing firms in the Piedmont region ( Italy), we find that firms seeking business advice are more likely to collaborate with regional universities while firms seeking R&D support and testing and analysis services are more likely to collaborate with both regional and non-regional universities. The partner university's location is endogenous to the level of investment in the collaboration; and the collaboration objectives provide good instruments. Some implications for regional policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]