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Purpose: This paper investigates whether and to what extent operating in inner areas affects the profitability of innovative Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over 2012–2018. Design/methodology/approach: Guided by the National Strategy for Inner Areas and the "Investment Compact," this study distinguishes between inner and core innovative SMEs. It employs various econometric models to estimate a regression for the return on assets of SMEs, differentiating between firms operating in inner and non-inner areas of northwest, northeast, centre and south Italy. Findings: Findings reveal that innovative SMEs in inner areas generally exhibit lower profitability compared to those in non-inner municipalities. However, huge heterogeneity in results is observed across the country. Specifically, innovative SMEs in the inner areas of the south register lower profitability than those operating in non-inner zones. Conversely, innovative SMEs located in the inner municipalities of northwest and northeast Italy show higher profitability than their peers in non-inner areas. The results imply that targeted policies for inner areas are crucial. However, due to the diversity of local impacts, a differentiated approach, depending on the geographic context, is necessary. Originality/value: The study aims to explore the relationship between inner areas and the performance of innovative SMEs in Italy. More precisely, it examines the effect of operating in a municipality located within an inner area on the profitability of innovative SMEs. This issue has been overlooked in existing literature. Importantly, we aim to determine whether there is a heterogeneous impact based on geographical localisation, specifically in the Northwest, the Northeast, the Centre and the South of the country. Therefore, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating the factors influencing the performance of innovative SMEs and suggesting new policy recommendations for developing inner areas in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and the economic processes they host are widely seen to be central to the economic prospects of nations. This reality presents city and national actors with challenges of how to jointly conceive of urban economic development policies, with a view to contributing to local and national economic development. Whilst national urban policies often outline the need for cities to contribute to economic outcomes, the treatment of spatial dynamics in national economic development policies remains highly uneven across countries. This paper critically reviews South Africa’s national economic policies, specifically industrial policies, to analyse how they have reflected the changing dynamics of the economic geography of the country and, in particular, the contributions of large cities. The research demonstrates that despite some growing discursive recognition of the importance of spatial dimensions of growth, policies have said little on the economic role of cities and have not generally promoted multi-scalar policy making and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest global scale occurrences — COVID-19 pandemic and bellicose conflicts — have weakened stable value chain relationships and forced international leaders to reassess commitments to sustainability. From these experiences, it became evident that the success of sustainability initiatives encompasses strengthening local and short value chains while creating means for engaging smallholders in formal food channels. Taking international and national policies as motivations, this article examines the emerging pawpaw value chain in the Eastern United States. We employ a mixed-mode approach with two aims. First, we demonstrate how complementing qualitative methods can be articulated to prepare a strategic agenda to foster the development and resilience of local ag-food chains. Second, through the application of the devised methodology, interview records and survey answers are evaluated to map value chain relationships and describe stakeholders' perceived challenges and opportunities. On the empirical front, this article proposes four macro strategies and 22 actionable projects. We argue that the representative association of pawpaw growers may adopt a broader leadership role to coordinate the necessary changes for sustaining long-term growth and promoting economic gains in rural communities dedicated to pawpaw production. The mixed-mode approach presented in this study can be replicated to analyze local and short chains elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the link between neighborhood characteristics, the importance of knowledge exchange, and firm innovation in Montreal. To this end we combine two sources of data: place-of-residence census data from Statistics Canada and the results of an original firm survey. Through principal component analysis and subsequent clustering, we define five types of neighborhoods. The results revealed that firms assign higher importance to local knowledge exchange when located in dense, walkable neighborhoods with higher educated residents. Knowledge exchange, both local and global, correlates with incremental and radical innovation. Moreover, firms are innovative in any neighborhood, provided they engage in knowledge exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper was to provide an empirical examination of earnings management among internally and externally managed REITs. The empirical accounting literature claims that internal management of a firm does not constrain earnings management, while others argue in favor of internal management for firms. Using a sample of listed South African REITs for the 2013 - 2021 time period, we examine the relationship between management structures and earnings management. We do not find any aggressive practice in internally managed REITs during the study period. The study’s findings imply that good corporate governance is a critical safeguard for stakeholders in exceptional circumstances when REITs have special incentives to manage earnings; as a result, it is suggested that REITs’ corporate governance is important, despite being overlooked in some circumstances. Specific to South African REITs, policymakers as well as nominating committees of the board of directors may wish to take note that financial competence is an important quality of external directors in order to effectively curb earnings management. This is the first study to investigate financial sheet manipulation among REITs management structures in an emerging market.

A well-integrated agricultural market is a precondition for the sustainability of agri-food systems since it contributes to optimal resource and product allocation and encourages specialization according to comparative advantage. The aim of the paper is to assess the processes of spatial price transmission in the milk market of Central European countries. This paper extends previous studies on the spatial integration of the milk market by providing a regional analysis of four Central European countries by examining the effects of distance, borders, and specialization on price transmission. Germany as the main milk producer in the European Union (EU) and the original member of the EU represents the base country for our analysis. The econometric analysis of the regional monthly raw milk prices reveals that the German regions, with the leading position in milk prices formation in Central Europe, together with the Czech and Slovak regions, can be regarded as a single milk market where prices tend to converge in the long run. In contrast, the Polish regions are still poorly integrated internally and externally. The perishability of the commodity coupled with the small size of the Polish farms means that farmers cannot easily switch to other, e.g., foreign buyers. This hinders price adjustment and is reflected in the economics of Polish dairy farms, whose profitability is low. Policymakers should, therefore, aim to equalize the market powers of agricultural producers and milk processors, e.g., by supporting the integration of dairy farms into producer organizations and sales cooperatives.

Industrial zones in Algeria play a crucial role in shaping the attractiveness and competitiveness of the country’s regions. The impact of these zones extends beyond economic factors, influencing the overall appeal and competitive edge of different regions. Understanding the dynamics of industrial zones is essential for comprehending Algeria’s economic landscape and its efforts to enhance regional development. The primary objective of this article is to shed light on industrial zones and their impacts on regional industrial attractiveness and competitiveness in Algeria. Firstly, it involves clarifying the concept of regional attractiveness and competitiveness in relation to their economic, environmental, and social dimensions. This leads us, secondly, to examine non-institutional actors, specifically companies, and their interactions with their regions, based on an understanding of the local area, including the effect of industrial zones on the attractiveness and competitiveness of local companies.

This article investigates the potential of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data in predicting local well-being and resilience in Italy. The linear Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) is used to handle multicollinearity problems and select the most influential OSM features. The data-driven approach provides evidence that OSM information is highly correlated with several socioeconomic metrics at a provincial scale (NUTS-3 level). Moreover, it claims that some specific points of interest—e.g., bookmakers—can be used for a rapid territorial appraisal of vulnerable territories, i.e., areas that are affected by economic backwardness, poor institutions, low human capital and that, for these adverse conditions, deserve special attention by policymakers concerned with a reduction of regional disparities. While OSM can become a powerful source for policy planning, monitoring and evaluation, future works in the field should explore the scalability of the approach, its use for forecasting purposes, and the adoption of various models and tools such as machine learning techniques to grasp even non-linear relationships between variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and evolution of engineering biology, and its potential to address multiple global challenges is associated with the rise of biofoundries. These innovation intermediaries are facilities that employ advanced automation and computational analytics to accelerate engineering biology applications. Yet, for biofoundries to fully achieve their promise of generating applications that address grand societal challenges, they need to meet three key challenges: translation of research technology and its commercialization, attention to sustainability, and responsible innovation. Using web content analysis and interviews, this paper explores the functions and capabilities undertaken by existing public biofoundries, the extent to which they address these three challenges, and opportunities and models for enhancement. We also probe the roles undertaken by three other contrasting types of innovation intermediaries to identify practices and opportunities for integration and partnering with public biofoundries. We find that public biofoundries exhibit relatively strong capabilities for research translation, whereas efforts toward sustainability and responsibility are generally less prominent. For biofoundry enhancement, we propose an organisational model based on external partnering where public biofoundries are positioned as intermediaries within regional innovation systems. The framework put forward is reproducible and could be used in other contexts for assessing innovation intermediary organisational functions and capabilities toward meeting societal challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis uses a difference-in-differences approach to examine the impact of the Regional Cities Initiative (RCI) on economic development outcomes in counties that participated in the program relative to those that did not participate. The RCI was a place-based economic development program that was implemented in Indiana beginning in 2015. Through a competitive process, this program provided funding for projects meant to improve the quality of life in three regions of the state. The results indicate that participating counties had higher gross domestic product growth and higher employment growth than nonparticipating counties. There is limited evidence that the program had a positive impact on population growth. There were no discernable effects on house prices or earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines unconditional quantile regressions with difference-in-differences to study the distributive effects of a foreign buyer tax (FBT) on home prices in New South Wales (NSW). The main results reveal that the FBT reduces house prices in NSW but only among the more expensive houses located in desirable neighborhoods of Sydney and with a relatively high share of foreign-born population. We find evidence that the FBT reduces transaction volumes in the same expensive Sydney neighborhoods and immigrant enclaves where house prices are observed to decline, in support of a direct mechanism that the FBT curbs foreign demand. Additional results suggest that more expensive homes are not substituted with less expensive housing, and that some foreign buyers respond to the FBT by divesting away from NSW locations. The main policy implication is that the FBT may help deter foreign buyers from accumulating higher-priced and luxury assets, but may fail to address broader housing affordability concerns facing the local population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The East–West imbalance in China’s economic development has profoundly affected all aspects of society, but the emergence of digital financial inclusion offers potential opportunities to address this issue. This study examines 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, and Exploratory Space–time Data Analysis is employed to specify the temporal and spatial changes in the East–West disparity in economic development and digital financial inclusion. The main findings are: First, inequality in economic development is associated with a decline in spatial autocorrelation. With the acute exacerbation of inequalities after the pandemic, enhancing spatial dependence through regional cooperation would be conducive to reducing disparities. Second, economic development, digital financial inclusion, and its components (usage and coverage) have hot spots in the East and cold spots in the West. Before the pandemic, significant advancements in the West mitigated the East–West gap, but the East–West divergence in economic development worsened after the COVID-19 explosion. Third, distinct from economic development, digital financial inclusion and its key elements (usage) not only have a growing regional dependence, but also that the pandemic has not disrupted improvements in the West. More importantly, there is a significant regional overlap between digital financial inclusion, usage, and economic development, implying spatial and attributable connections among them. Consequently, governments should consider digital financial inclusion as a policy tool to relieve the worsening inequality in economic development between the East and West during the post-pandemic stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing urbanization, population growth and the social, economic and environmental problems resulting from them, along with the growth and expansion of information and communication technology - as the main axis of transformation in the world - is the main feature of the 21st century. To deal with the challenge of cities, the concept of smart city has been presented. Good urban governance is presented as a prerequisite for a smart city by national and international organizations. Therefore, the idea of urban management and governance has been removed from its traditional state and improved. In other words, good and smart governance involves an open dialogue between citizens and city officials through an active ICT platform. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to answer the question that with the new changes in the field of technology in the cities of the country, especially the metropolises, what is the state of good governance indicators in the studied metropolis? And is the urban management in Tabriz metropolis able to improve the desirable urban governance indicators in line with the smart city indicators? The answers to the research questions have been done by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative models. The indicators of smart city and good urban governance have been extracted using questionnaire tools and statistics available in statistical yearbooks and analyzed in Python programming environment. The results show that the overall score of good governance in Tabriz metropolis is 0.436. Among the five indicators introduced by the United Nations, the effectiveness index is the most favorable and the equality index is the most unfavorable among other indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to present the creation of Regional Development Funds (Regionalne Fundusze Rozwoju - RFR) in Poland, their organisational models and factors influencing their development and choice of model. The research is also focused on the analysis of the variety of RFRs and their sources.

Rural areas in developing countries often grapple with energy shortages, low energy efficiency, and significant environmental pollution, all of which are interconnected with the issues of rural poverty. Policies geared toward rural green development are closely linked to energy transformation and economic growth. China's “Beautiful Countryside Construction” initiative prioritizes the enhancement of rural living conditions, the promotion of rural economic progress, energy transformation, and environmental amelioration through rural–urban integration. This study utilizes panel data encompassing 1,787 Chinese counties spanning from 2008 to 2015, employing the difference-in-difference (DID) method to analyze the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the “Beautiful Countryside Construction” program. The findings indicate that this initiative has contributed to the enhancement of the rural environment, the promotion of environmentally friendly economic development, and the advancement of rural energy transformation. These outcomes hold significant implications for how developing nations can design policies that achieve a harmonious balance between economic advancement and environmental preservation, fostering sustainable economic growth worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the externality theory, this paper estimates the city size threshold of specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration. We find that when the urban population is below 1.25 million, specialized agglomeration is more advantageous for improving urban labor productivity. When the urban population exceeds 0.9 million, diversified agglomeration is more advantageous for improving urban labor productivity. Moreover, Specialized agglomeration of small and medium-sized cities is more likely to play the role of Marshall-Arrow-Romer externality within the spillover radius of regional central cities. One important policy suggestion is that for areas with small administrative regions and small population, it is better to increase the level of specialized agglomeration through industrial transfer, and for areas with large administrative regions and large population, it is better to increase the level of diversified agglomeration through industrial introduction, so as to further improve the urban economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are there regional differences in the determinants of financial knowledge in the Spanish adult population? To answer this question, we use data from the Spanish Survey of Financial Competences to estimate qualitative response models in which each of the "big three" of financial knowledge (inflation, compound interest, and risk diversification) acts as a dependent variable on a set of explanatory variables concerning the particularities of individuals. We find that, while some factors determine financial knowledge in a generalized way in most regions and in the same direction (e.g., gender, education, self-confidence), others do so in different ways depending on the region analyzed. Among the latter are health status and financial fragility (where, in both, the different degree of social protection between regions may play an important role), as well as birthplace and age, among others. Rurality also stands out as having different implications in Navarra than in the rest of the regions. We conclude by proposing to use both longitudinal and aggregate indicators of financial knowledge in Spanish regions in order to analyze in the future related issues that are beyond the possibilities offered by microdata bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent racial inequality in socioeconomic status within urban areas has been a significant concern in both the US and European countries. Differences across racial groups in intergenerational mobility (IM) have been identified as a key source of this persistence. However, efforts to understand racial inequality in IM have rarely considered the role of urban sprawl. This article argues that urban sprawl affects differences in IM between racial groups directly and indirectly through racial segregation, racial bias, and social capital. We analyze data from 874 metropolitan counties in the US using structural equation models to test these direct and indirect effects of sprawl on racial inequality in IM. We found that urban sprawl was negatively associated with racial inequality in IM. The direct effect, which we partially attribute to higher racial disparities in social capital in more compact counties, was statistically significant. For the indirect effects, racial segregation had the largest mediating effects between urban sprawl and racial inequality in IM, followed by economic connectedness (EC) and racial bias. The net indirect effect of sprawl on racial inequality in IM was negative because negative indirect effects through racial segregation and EC outweigh positive indirect effects through racial bias. Our findings demonstrate the significant role of urban form in racial inequality in IM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a new interpretation of place brand as a multilevel threshold public good (MTPG) produced by the interaction of narratives from different geographical levels. Using an original dataset of Google trends and tweets from Italian provinces and regions, we test the hypothesis that place branding has a multilevel structure. We further test the MTPG framework applied to place branding, showing that place branding is influenced by different geographical levels which can trigger a spillover in terms of attractiveness if they contribute to crossing a threshold point. The results confirm the presence of a provision point in place branding, showing that the proposed MTPG framework fits the phenomenon. This article contributes to the literature on place branding and brands by providing a new lens through which to interpret the phenomenon, which may be useful for a better understanding and measuring of the interaction of branding strategies operating at different spatial scales.