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The worldwide importance of crop production is undisputed due to its function for basic nutrition of billions of people. Yet, the emergence of global forces implies severe consequences for the organization of crop value chains. These forces particularly include processes of liberalization and deregulation, the dominance of large retail groups as well as ever-changing consumer demands, leading to continuous reconfigurations of crop value chains. Based on a literature review, this paper aims at thematically ‘organizing’ and differentiating the key findings of relevant empirical studies on global crop value chains, with a particular focus on South-North relations. Thereby, current shifts and challenges are identified and analysed with special attention paid to spatio-relational dimensions. The spatial perspective is important since crop value chains both shape and are shaped by specific geographical settings which is, among others, considered in the growing literature on food geographies. Overall, we could extract three strands of literature on global crop value chains: the integration of smallholders; the role of food standards; and the effect of ‘hidden’ dynamics. These issues especially reveal the interdependencies between the Global South and the Global North as a crucial feature of contemporary crop production and distribution systems. These are A further outcome of the literature analysis is the derivation of suggestions regarding future research and areas of needed progress.

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.

Tamasy C. (2006) Determinants of regional entrepreneurship dynamics in contemporary Germany: a conceptual and empirical analysis, Regional Studies 40, 365–384. The importance of entrepreneurship for the development of national and regional economies is widely recognized. Although politicians in Germany are aware of entrepreneurship, their practices cannot rely on a generally accepted theory of entrepreneurship. The paper develops a holistic conceptualization of regional entrepreneurship dynamics and investigates empirically determinants of start-up activities and new business success in selected German regions. It uses two primary data sets explicitly designed to analyse regional entrepreneurship dynamics in contemporary Germany. The research project ‘Regional Entrepreneurship Monitor’ focuses on determinants of start-up activities in the pre-entry phase of entrepreneurial processes, while the ‘New Firm Survey’ examines factors influencing post-entry firm success. The paper suggests holistic approaches in...

This commentary is a response to Larner’s (2011) article ‘C-change? Geographies of crisis’. It applauds her arguments while suggesting that it might be helpful to (re)consider development in the recent period of global(izing) crisis. Furthermore, it discusses what economic geography as a subfield of geography can contribute to better understand C-change.

STERNBERG R. and TAMASY C. (1999) Munich as Germany's no. 1 high technology region: empirical evidence, theoretical explanations and the role of small firm/large firm relationships, Reg. Studies 33 , 367-377 . This paper verifies Munich's firstrate performance among all German regions based on numerous indicators of RD rather, they enjoy diverse and intraregional co-operation in innovation. STERNBERG R. et TAMASY C. (1999) Munich, la premiere technopole allemande: des preuves empiriques, des explications theoriques et l'importa...

The study of the distribution of economic activities across space has always been the essence of economic geography, regional economics, and related disciplines. Empirical analyses have provided significant evidence, for example, that especially urbanized regions are very successful in developing innovation and employment (e.g., Wedemeier 2009). A prerequisite for the generation of economic growth is, however, the capability of economic agents to be creative and to develop new ideas. A relational perspective places the analytical focus on the complex nexus of economic relations between actors and structures. It has been argued that changes in the relations between actors and structures foster dynamic transformations in the spatial organization of economic activities (Boggs and Rantisi 2003). Hence, relational economic growth is concerned with the ways in which socio-spatial relations of actors are interlaced with structures and processes of economic change at various geographical scales (Yeung, 2005). Bathelt and Gluckler (2003) argued that the relational perspective has three fundamental components: (a) economic actors operate within frameworks of social and institutional relations; (b) economic processes are path-dependent, with future actions constrained to some extent by past decisions; and (c) economic processes can also shaped by agents’ free will, unconstrained by existing development paths. According to Jones (2009, p. 487) recent years “have witnessed a burgeoning of work on 'thinking space relationally'”, even though there seem exists some silence on factors that, for example, constrain, structure, and connect space (see also Sunley 2008).