Search

Many studies in economics and regional science claim a positive link between interpersonal trust and innovation by demonstrating a positive effect of trust on patenting. This contrasts many findings from organization level studies on trust and innovation, who report a variety of findings including inverted‐U type relations. A possible explanation is that trust exhibits different roles in invention and innovation, as the former relies on knowledge commons while the latter directly embeds commercialization and the market context. This study attempts to reconcile the two set of findings by studying indicators of invention and innovation in relation to trust at the same unit of observation, by using the regional variation in Europe. I study the relationship between interpersonal trust and patent applications (a measure of invention), trademark applications (a composite indicator) and the share of innovative sales in turnover by SMEs (a direct indicator of commercialization), across European regions. I show that trust positively affects trademark applications with an effect that is comparable to that on patent applications. However, trust exhibits an inverted‐U type relationship with innovative sales. Results collectively point to a strong role of trust in all three creative activities, including a negative effect at the higher end when the indicator is directly contingent on commercialization and sales. I also estimate the extent of spatial spillovers in the effect of trust on all three creative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the specialisation of European Union (EU) regions in key enabling technologies (KETs) and assesses whether or not being specialised in these technological areas has an effect on regional growth. The evidence presented shows that regions specialised in KETs are concentrated in central Europe; however, over the period taken into account (1996–2011), less innovative and peripheral EU regions have been increasing their specialisation in these technological areas at the expense of the most advanced regions. There is also evidence that (spatial) diffusion of KETs often occurs across regions contiguous to each other. The results of the econometric estimations show that being specialised in KETs affects regional economic growth (per capita gross domestic product) and that this effect is stronger in the case of less innovative EU regions. Overall, these results hint at the pervasive nature and enabling role of KETs and demonstrate the importance for EU regions to target these technologies as part of their smart specialisation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing research interest in the relationship between the composition of regional knowledge bases and the extra-regional collaborative ties maintained by actors during their development work. To investigate this relationship, we use patent data to characterize European NUTS 3 regions by their (i) comparative technological specializations; and (ii) related technological variety. We find domestic, extra-regional collaboration to be negatively associated with regional technological specialization and related technological variety. At the same time, we find related technological variety to serve in support of international innovation collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge-intensive services (KIS) are assuming an increasing importance in innovation, to such an extent that they have even classified as "key agents" within innovation systems (Fischer, 2001). As one of the major features of KIS is coproduction, location is expected to play a significant role on the effects of KIS on regional innovation systems. The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the location of KIS and the innovation performance of the European regions. Starting from the results reached by previous studies: Makun and McPherson (1997) for three New York regions, Muller and Zenker (1998) for five German and French regions, Drejer and Vinding (2003) for Danish urban areas or Simmie and Strambach (2006) for large cities of England and Germany, our aim is to widen the traditional scope of the analysis and evaluate the relationship between location of KIS and innovation performance on an European basis. More concretely we try to show that the spatial concentration of KIS in some regions (and particular in capital cities) contributes to foster innovation. To do so we carry out an exploratory spatial analysis for more than 100 European regions. We take as a proxy for the location of KIS the share of employment in KIS in every region. The results obtained support the hypothesis that KIS exert a positive impact on regional innovation performance, an impact that could spill over into the neighbouring regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the importance of technology adoption has been acknowledged, nevertheless, at a more general level, a critical question arises: what is the implication of a 'low' or a 'high' adoptive ability for regional convergence? A model is developed in which the pattern of convergence is attributed to the rate of technological adoption across regions. According this model convergence towards leading regions is feasible only for regions with a sufficient ability to adopt technology. A scheme of measurement is developed to calibrate this argument and data for the EU27 NUTS-2 regions for period 1995-2006 are used to develop an empirical analysis of the processes and conditions that have been hypothesised as generating differential regional economic change. The results suggest that adoption of technology has a significant effect on regional growth patterns in Europe, and hence the analysis has important implications for the direction of regional policy in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Intellectual Economics is the property of Intellectual Economics / Mykolas Romeris University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many argue that transgenic technology will have wide-ranging implications for farmers in developing nations. A key concern is that competencies may be destroyed by predominantly foreign multinational transgenic technologies, exacerbating problems of social exclusion in the case of subsistence farmers. Conversely, those that fail to adopt the technology may become uncompetitive, particularly in commodity-based export markets. Drawing on interview data conducted in Brazil and supporting data collected in North America, Europe and China, we found that the impact of transgenic technology varies. It has less impact on farmers that adapt the products to their crop systems and environment, and greater negative implications for less formally educated subsistence farmers in consequence of both complexity and compatibility. Earlier attempts at industrializing agriculture through technological innovation led to vastly improved agricultural output and exports, but the benefits of productivity was not equitably distributed [D. Lee: , American Journal of Agricultural Economics 87(5), 1325–1334], nor was it designed to meet specific local environmental and socioeconomic farmer conditions, exacerbating social exclusion. Multinationals attempting to introduce transgenic technology without considering the broader social and ethical implications will invite resistance. We discuss the implications for policy makers, multinationals and small-scale farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of economic integration has triggered complex territorial dynamics in Europe. Basically, opposite dynamics appears to prevail for national and regional economies. The convergence process of the national economies of the EU coexists with a process of divergence between the regional European economies. The process of economic integration occurs in a context of increased importance of permanent innovation and of resulting increased territorialisation of activities where the metropolitan areas seem to embody the main issues at stake on European scene, particularly regarding its regional dimension. Different theoretical literatures have been developed, regarding both income convergence and regional specialisation in Europe. This paper is a first step towards a simultaneous resolution of the different dimensions of regional dynamics induced by the European integration: it focuses on the concept of structural convergence applied at the regional level and adopting the Wacziarg (2001) framework empirically establishes the existence of structural convergence of European metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we contribute to the longstanding discussion on the role of knowledge to economic growth in a spatial context. We observe that in adopting the European policy strategy towards a competitive knowledge economy, the Netherlands is—as most European countries—mainly oriented towards industrial, technological factors. The policy focus is on R&D specialized regions in their spatial economic strategies. We place the knowledge economy in a broader perspective. Based on the knowledge economy literature, we value complementary indicators: the successful introduction of new products and services to the market (“innovation”) and indicators of skills of employees (“knowledge workers”). Using econometric analysis, we relate the three factors “R&D”, “innovation” and “knowledge workers” to regional economic growth. We conclude that the factors “innovation” and “knowledge workers” are more profoundly related to urban employment and productivity growth than the R&D-factor. Preferably, urban research and policy-makers should therefore take all three knowledge factors into account when determining economic potentials of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the composition of industrial activity influences innovation is the key question of this paper. The analysis is based on a model that integrates different kinds of diversity measures aiming at capturing Jacobs externalities, a production specialisation measure aiming at capturing Marshall-Arrow-Romer (MAR) externalities and regions as well as sector specific variables. Tested with an extended sample of 153 European regions and 16 manufacturing sectors, the estimates suggest that both kinds of externalities significantly influence innovation, although the influence of Jacobs externalities is more important in the context of “high density” regions as well as for high tech sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]