bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Regionale Kompetenzzyklen – Zur Bedeutung von Produktlebenszyklus- und Clusteransätzen im regionalen Kontext
Authors: Tichy Gunther
Published: January 2016

Modelling the path of the regional product cycle and adding dynamic and stochastic aspects suggests the likelihood of multiple equilibria; bunches of divergent paths of the product cycle may result, depending on starting conditions and parameter size. Narrow clusters of traditional products based on localisation economies, for instance, are quite likely to age, following the traditional bell-shaped path: accelerating expansion, congestion and Saturation, sclerosis and decline. Clusters based on urbanisation economies, on the other hand, face a much lower probability of aging, and if they do, they tend to pass the stages more slowly; their greater adaptability results from the higher information density of the region. Regions characterised by coexistence of several clusters are the ones most likely to avoid aging. Neither theoretical arguments nor historical examples, however, can be found in favour of a regional cycle in literal sense: a new product cycle following the declining one necessarily or at least with some likelihood.
Ökologie und Ökonomie in Ostmittel- und Osteuropa
Authors: Kühne Olaf
Published: January 2016

Ecology and economics in Eastern Central and Eastern Europe - socialistic heritage and system transformation: The system transformation in Eastern Central and Eastern Europe led to a delay of the ecological problems: In the socialist era the secondary economic sector was the main-emitter of pollutants, now the main-causes are the private households. The diminution of the industrial emissions thereby was, besides changed political basic conditions, also ascribable on the force to increase the competitiveness in international economic contest.
Netzwerkanalyse von Produktionsclustern
Authors: Krätke Stefan
Published: January 2016

Network analysis of regional production clusters - the film industry of Potsdam/Babelsberg. The cluster concept has assumed a prominent position in economic geography in recent times. Although there are numerous analyses based on the cluster concept, no agreement has been reached on suitable methods for analysis and comparison of regional clusters. This paper presents a research design for the analysis of regional production clusters which employs the network analysis method to develop, in particular, the quality ,,analysis“ of clusters, using the film industry production cluster in Potsdam/Babelsberg as an example.
The Micro-level Matters
Authors: Gray Mia
Published: January 2016

Many accounts of firm behavior in geography today suffer from a simplified theory of the firm. Many theories treat the firm as a unified entity with one overarching strategy. These theories have difficulty explaining how firms construct strategy around issues such as location, partnering, and outsourcing and how they make decisions about different corporate activities (research, development, manufacturing, and marketing). I argue that firms in emerging industries behave in a much more complex fashion than is usually theorized. Understanding firm decisions on structure, behavior and location depends on the recognition that firm strategy differs for each corporate activity. I argue that one way around the limitations of the conventional approach is to break down the firm into development, production, and realization processes and understand the requirements and opportunities for each separate activity. By following innovative products in the US drug industry (pharmaceuticals and biotechnology), I develop a micro-level, activity-specific, theory of the firm.
Flughäfen in Ost- und Südostasien
Authors: Feldhoff Thomas
Published: January 2016

Airports in East and Southeast Asia - Japan’s airport infrastructure policies and perspectives in view of transnational competition. The paper deals with air passenger traffic and airports in East and Southeast Asia. Following some introductory remarks on the conceptual framework of studies on airport competition and globalization processes, the paper concentrates on intercity competition and infrastructure policies for major metropolitan airports in the Asia-Pacific region. The paper especially provides insights into the current strategies, basic problems and perspectives of Japanese airport infrastructure policies.
Südkoreas Regionalentwicklung im Spannungsfeld zwischen nationaler Wirtschaftsentwicklung, Regionalismus und Regionalpolitik
Authors: Hassink Robert
Published: January 2016

South Korea´s regional development: Between national economic development, regionalism, and regional policy: South Korea’s successful economic growth model, which was based on strong central government trade, industrial and technology policies, has long been emulated by policy-makers from many developing countries. During the last two years of the 20th Century, however, South Korea was faced with the severest economic crisis since the Korean War. The strong central government backing of both the financial sector and the chaebol (large enterprises) has led to inefficient allocations of resources and large enterprise debts. The current crisis might lead to increasing devolution of political power to the regional level. This would enable regions to become more active in tackling the country’s regional inequalities and in promoting innovation networks between large enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and public research establishments
Hongkong – eine Weltstadt auf der Suche nach einer neuen Identität
Authors: Breitung Werner
Published: January 2016

Hong Kong: A world city in search of a new identity. The case of Hong Kong shows, that any identity of places can only be described as a dynamic and socially determined concept. Hong Kong is seen as a post-colonial, and even more as a world city. The essay verifies the world city status in economic terms, and views it as Hong Kong’s strategy to counterbalance the nationalisation impending with the handover. Emphasis is put on the changing identity of Hong Kong in terms of economics, politics, culture and spaces, which are shown to be closely intertwined.
Wissensintensive unternehmensorientierte Dienstleistungen als regionale Innovationssysteme
Authors: Haas Hans-Dieter , Lindemann Susanne
Published: January 2016

Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) as regional innovation systems. The number of business enterprises in a particular region represents a location factor that reflects the ability to develop a regional innovation system. Specialization resulting in branches equipped with pertinent, intensive know-how and the degree of intensity of the knowledge of these branches provide significant hints about the extent of specialized information present as well as about the potential for transferring knowledge within company networks. By identifying branches endowed with concentrated knowledge and by analyzing cases of specialization in a region, the contribution in hand offers an initial indication about the quantification of creative environments.
Mismatch-Arbeitslosigkeit auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt
Authors: Franck Michael
Published: January 2016

Regional spread of mismatch unemployment on the German labour market and conclusions for policies of the Federal Employment Service. A lot of labour market researchers argue that the main problem behind the high unemployment rate in Germany is the mismatch between labour demand and supply. This article, however, shows that such a thesis ignores the spatial dimension and can only be verified for some of the German regions. Labour demand deficiency is at least of equal importance in many other regions. The article identifies which problem is dominant in which region and explains what kind of labour market policies should be therefore preferred respectively.
Governance in transnationalen Unternehmen und Wertschöpfungsketten
Authors: Fuchs Martina
Published: January 2016

Governance in transnational companies and in global value chains: An approach to a theoretical concept. Global governance is a very popular expression nowadays, in political sciences as well as in the public discussion. This paper argues that governance may be fruitful for economic geography, too. As a term orientated on structures respectively on institutions, governance offers chances to be bound to approaches in policy-orientated forms of economic geography. The point of reference, the institutions, make the term more fruitful than the term ´power´, which also may include accidental, individual situations. The concept of governance should help to analyse corporate governance in transnational companies as well as global chain governance in value chains. While governance can include organisational learning in the sense that transnational companies are able to reflect their own actions, and thus can change their behaviour on purpose and gain steering competencies, global value chains do not have a “central mind”, although there are possibilities for upgrading, downgrading or different forms of change in parts of the chains. Keywords: Governance, transnational companies, global value chains, institutions, learning,international division of labour and competences.
Bausteine zu einer Geographie des Kapitalismus
Authors: Zeller Christian
Published: January 2016

Elements of a geography of capitalism. Despite the variety of new approaches economic geography developed rather one-sided in the past decade. The regional and the firm lenses hardly enabled to recognize how economic processes and political power relations interact on different scales. These empirical deficits also express a restricted theoretical base. The approaches of the new “regional orthodoxy” claim to explain conditions of an improved competitiveness of firms and of regions. However, many socially relevant and spatially differentiated problems are ignored. In contrast, this paper argues for an integrative understanding of the capitalist economy in its historical dynamics and with its reciprocal effects for actors on various scales. In the course of neoliberal deregulation policies and globalization processes, a finance-dominated accumulation regime emerged in the USA which shapes the economy on a global scale. Institutional investors gained decisive control over investments. The political power relations and hierarchies between states remain important. Therefore, the paper suggests a shift of economic geographical research. In the perspective of an integrative geography of capitalism the paper outlines a research agenda of a geography of accumulation, a geography of production as well as a geography of power
Konzepte und Leitthemen einer ökologischen Modernisierung der Wirtschaftsgeographie
Authors: Braun Boris , Schulz Christian , Soyez Dietrich
Published: January 2016

Concepts and key issues of an ecological modernisation of economic geography. To date, economic geographers have addressed ecological problems only very hesitatingly despite the fact that an “ecologically modernised” economic geography could offer a double chance to the entire discipline. First, because there is a good opportunity to add new value to older, established approaches within the discipline. Second, because there is considerable demand for applied environmental knowledge in politics, economy and society. In our paper we will discuss several new approaches and concepts from within and from outside (economic) geography in order to present a conceptual framework for further research. In particular, we try to outline research topics and questions regarding different but fundamentally inter-connected spatial scales, namely at the macro level (national and international regulation, environmental governance), at the meso level (environmental protection in regional context) and at the micro level (environmental performance of firms).
Erreichbarkeit, Verkehrsinfrastruktur und regionale Entwicklung
Authors: Gather Matthias
Published: January 2016

Accessibility, transport infrastructure and regional development - a case study of Thuringia. The presented study examines the question whether in the restructuring of the Eastgerman economy the existing infrastructure has positively influenced regional economic development. Overall the example of Thuringia has shown that proximity to the south-western cores of agglomeration rather than motorway access is most important for economic development. Nevertheless, motorways accelerate the process of adaptation and productivity. In structurally strong regions, they can positively influence numerous regional economic indicators. In structurally weak areas the problems of the labour market may even be worsened.
Regionalentwicklung im Kontext globalisierter Produktionssysteme?
Authors: Berndt Christian
Published: January 2016

Globalized production systems and regional development: The example of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Criticizing one-sided representations of the current crisis of the Mexican maquiladora industry, this paper argues that current changes cannot adequately be approached from the territorial perspective underlying traditional development theories. Instead, the author argues for a postterritorial reading of development, linking alternative conceptualizations of the spatiality of economic processes with an understanding of territorial borders as always in the making and as such never pregiven and stable.
Clusteransätze in der regionalen Wirtschaftsförderung
Authors: Sternberg Rolf , Kiesel Matthias , Schätzl Ludwig
Published: January 2016

Cluster approaches to local economic development. Theoretical considerations and case studies from Wolfsburg and Hannover. Since the 1990s. cluster approaches have become highly fashionable among scholars in economic geography and regional economics, and policy-makers alike. This paper explores the theoretical foundations of the cluster concept, which eclectically draws on various schools of thought. Clusters can be either conducive or harmful to local economic development. depending on a set of framework conditions and the cluster life cycle. A number of preconditions can be derived that will eventually determine the success or failure of a cluster- based strategy of local economic development. Theoretical propositions are then tested against case studies situated in German city regions where McKinsey & Co. have devised such clusterbased concepts, launched between 1998 and 2002. Despite a uniform approach, local starting conditions and specific constellations of actors have led to distinct interpretations of the cluster approach. Preliminary conclusions suggest that policy can foster the development of local industry clusters if certain building blocks are already in place, but independent in-depth evaluations have yet to be made.
Gründungen in Städten
Authors: Fritsch Michael , Brixy Udo , Niese Michael , Otto Anne
Published: January 2016

New firm formation in cities. In this article the specifics of new firm formation in cities are analyzed empirically. Start-up rates in urban agglomerations areas are relatively high. Even if one controls for the effect of industry structure density is conducive for the level of new firm formation. However. survival rates of new firms in cities tend to be relatively low. Therefore, cities are characterized by high intensity of market selection leading to high turbulente of the stock of businesses. Does this imply an advantage of cities over other types of region?
Wirtschaftlicher Strukturwandel in der Region Stuttgart
Authors: Gaebe Wolf
Published: January 2016

Economic structural change in the Stuttgart region. The Stuttgart region is one of the most highly developed regions in the EU. Growth rates, competitiveness and purchasing power are far more dependent than in other regions of the EU on the basic and export activities of the industrial sector, especially on the region’s closeley knit cluster of activities around the automobile industry. However, Baden-Württemberg’s economically strongest region is no longer the fastest growing one. Economy and population are certainly continuing to grow but structural weaknesses are evident in the below average growth of value added in both the producing and services sectors. These weaknesses are also evident in the labour market despite the relatively low rate of unemployment and the difficulties associated with finding new growth areas. in contrast to the industrial sector with its outstanding national and and international companies, there is a lack of basic and export activities in the services sector in the Stuttgart region. The polarised structure of employment, a large share of highly qualified employees and, at the Same time, a large share of those with few skills can be explained by the economic structure which is atypical for urban regions of highly developed countries. Because of the structural weaknesses and the strong interregional competition, development of the region and improvement in the research and education infrastructure have priority as fields for policy action.
Singapurs Weg in die Wissensökonomie
Authors: Kiese Matthias
Published: January 2016

Singapore’s road to a knowledge-based economy. The role of knowledge-intensive business services in the national system of innovation. In 1998, Singapore’s government announced its vision to transform the city state into a knowledge-based economy (KBE) through a gradual shift from value adding to value creation. As both users and producers of knowledge, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are commonly seen as a cornerstone of the KBE. After assessing the development, size and structure of Singapore’s KIBS sector, we use data from innovation surveys of manufacturing and KIBS firms to assess the latter’s dual role as innovators and bridges for innovation. Our results allow us to point out policy recommendations and sketch possible avenues for further research.
Europäische Industriekultur als touristisches Destinationspotenzial
Authors: Soyez Dietrich
Published: January 2016

European industrial heritage as tourist destination potential. Recently, attempts at creating industrial heritage trails or routes with a decidedly European focus abound. In the following it is argued, that these concepts mainly link objects at a European scale that are still nationally embedded. They do not emphasise specific dimensions of Europeanness, i.e. sites, processes, events or crises of crucial importance from genuinely European perspectives. In the following, relevant issues are discussed from a conceptual point of view, complemented by proposals for a strategy change.
Europa als touristisches Ziel
Authors: Pechlaner Harald , Raich Frieda
Published: January 2016

Europe as tourist destination. Governance of spatial competitive units of international tourism. For international tourists Europe is growing together because of advanced information and transport technology. The answer to such tendencies in internationalization is transnational cooperation to respond better to customer needs and expectations. The traditional destination management has to be broadened and should include cross-border interaction and collaboration between different levels and actors.The paper deals with the governance of international competitive units. Governance is defined as combination and interaction between different governance forms whose basis is a cooperative approach combined with institutional structures to avoid market failure. The discussion between different actor constellations and structure levels completes the approach.
Kompetenzfeldwirtschaft im Ruhrgebiet
Authors: Rehfeld Dieter
Published: January 2016

Fields of competencies in the Ruhr area. The roots of the fields of competencies approach in the Ruhr area are reaching back to the mid of the 1990s. Changes in structural policy which resulted in this approach are discussed in the first part. The second part looks at this approach in more detail, its focus is on expectations, potentials and implementation structure. Because an evaluation of this approach still is missing, the arguments are based on theoretical reflections, expert interviews and plausibility. The concluding Part discusses perspectives of the fields of competencies approach.
Technologische Absorptionsfähigkeit einheimischer und ausländischer Unternehmen in Südostasien
Authors: Berger Martin
Published: January 2016

Technological absorptive capacity of local and foreign firms in Southeast Asia. Examples from Singapore, Penang and Bangkok. The article reflects on the conceptualization of absorptive capacity (AC) and distinguishes between potential and realized AC. Next it analyses potential AC in an exploratory manner for a) all surveyed and b) only R&D-performing local and foreign firms. Using general indicators such as qualification of the workforce and training expenditure as well as R&D-specific indicators such as R&D-expenditure, -personnel and -cooperation, it finds evidence that in general foreign firms tend to possess a higher absorptive capacity while the opposite is true for R&D performing firms.
Arbeitsmarktentwicklung im Logistiksektor
Authors: Noppe Ronald , Plehwe Dieter
Published: January 2016

Labour market development in the logistics sector. Importance, dynamics and (de-)regulation of the distribution economy. Deregulation and innovation in commercial and industrial transportation, warehousing and distribution led to the rise of a modern logistics sector. Both for Germany and the US scholars have argued that expanding logistics services help to compensate for the decline in manufacturing employment. An examination of national employment statistics to the contrary shows logistics employment to be in absolute (Germany) or relative (US) decline. While the share of logistics jobs requiring higher qualifications seems to increase in both countries, many lower skilled activities seem to be subject to productivity increase and/or (international) relocation. If dynamics in the logistic sector contribute to the decline of manufacturing employment in various ways, employment in this sector overall does not contribute to the rising share of employment in the service sector.
Spatial dynamics in the container load centers of the Le Havre-Hamburg range
Authors: Notteboom Theo
Published: January 2016

This paper discusses the spatial dynamics in the Le Havre - Hamburg range. By applying existing spatial models on port system development, changes in the range’s port hierarchy are discussed. It is demonstrated that the existing port hierarchy in the range is unlikely to be structurally challenged in the foreseeable future and that port authorities and market players are designing strategies in view of better meeting the market requirements in terms of port services provision, logistics integration and hinterland penetration.
Ressourcenkonflikte ohne Ende?
Authors: Oßenbrügge Jürgen
Published: January 2016

Never ending resource conflicts? The political economy of African economies of violence. Since years there is an ongoing debate whether resource scarcity or resource curse is a causal factor for conflict and war especially in central and western Africa. The argument in this paper starts with a review of both bodies of literature. Though resource scarcity is and will be an important underlying factor for situations which may lead to militant crisis, it is argued that empirical evidence supports assumptions based on the paradox of the plenty. But it is argued that statistical and comparative studies are perhaps misleading because important aspects of war economies, especially their embeddedness within international networks, are neglected. The phrase “violent nodes in global networks” is used here and illustrated in respect to the war economy of the Democratic Republic Congo to analyze forms of local-global interplay. In this way it becomes obvious that localized forms of violence are part of global commodity chains and neoliberal restructuring of the world economy. Solutions for this kind of conflicts presuppose either strong transnational norms or ongoing military interventions by the UN.
Environmental problems and environmental governance in the context of dynamic economic growth – the case of China
Authors: Richerzhagen Carmen , Scholz Imme
Published: January 2016

The fast growing anchor countries have become key players in mitigating global environmental change. China is a very particular anchor country. The size, scope and quality of the environmental degradation associated with its dramatic economic growth is much larger than that of all the other anchor countries. Despite being regarded as an all-embracing emerging superpower, China is a very heterogeneous country regarding its economic, social and environmental structure. Regional differences require an effective response. However, China’s environmental governance system is characterized by a number of weaknesses, which impede the implementation of targets and objectives set by policies and laws. The most significant weakness refers to the insufficient institutional framework for horizontal and vertical policy coordination. Good environmental governance requires measures that address these deficiencies. Furthermore, the diffusion of public information on the costs of environmental degradation and the rule of law have to be promoted as complementary measures.
Cluster dynamics and policy implications
Authors: Brenner Thomas
Published: January 2016

Abstract Local clusters are widely discussed in the economic and geographic literature. After a short overview on the mathematical literature, this paper presents a theoretical model of cluster formation that allows to deduce advice for policy intervention. The model is mathematically and numerically analysed and different policy measures are examined. It is shown that the timing of policy measures is important and that for different measures different time windows of opportunity exist.
Unternehmensfinanzierung durch Business Angels
Authors: Wallisch Matthias
Published: January 2016

Corporate financing through business angels. Spatial organisation patterns of the informal venture capital market in Germany. Business angels play an important role in the financing of high-growth ventures. As informal investors they support entrepreneurs not only with money but also bring added value to their companies. The article examines the investment behaviour of business angels and traces the spatial diffusion of informal venture capital by considering different forms of proximity (spatial, organisational, cognitive, institutional and social). The findings are based on a large set of quantitative and qualitative empirical data collected from angel investors in Germany.Analysis of the data suggests interrelations between investment industries, social networks and the spatial mobility of informal venture capital. Altogether the spatial organisation of the business angel market in Germany can be described as an interregional network with financial and technology clusters as central nodes.
Wissensmanagement in Netzwerken unterschiedlicher Reichweite
Authors: Klagge Britta , Peter Carsten
Published: January 2016

Knowledge management in networks of varying geographical scopes: The example of private equity (PE) in Germany. An analysis of the private equity (including venture capital) value chain shows that private equity firms’ strategies integrate and rely on the exchange of knowledge with various external partners in order to reduce investment risk. In our paper we theoretically discuss and empirically examine what type of relationships and positions are aimed for by PE-firms and how this translates into knowledge management and network strategies. Specifically we explore the geographical scope of PE-networks and how PE-firms’ knowledge management connects and integrates regional and supraregional networks.We will show that although regional financial centres function as nodes in these networks, PE-activities do not seem to play an important role in (re)stimulating financial dynamics in these centres.
Zur Diskussion gestellt. Erster Nobelpreis für einen „economic geographer“ – eine Bewertung aus Sicht eines Wirtschaftsgeographen
Authors: Sternberg Rolf
Published: January 2016

First Nobel Prize given to an “economic geographer” - a critical assessment from the perspective of a proper economic geographer. This paper critically assesses both the theoretical approach of the New Economic Geography (NEG) developed by US economist Paul Krugman and the decision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to give him the 2008 “Nobel Prize in Economics” for his work on trading patterns and the spatial concentration of economic activities. This assessment is done from the perspective of a proper economic geographer. The basics of Krugman’s NEG models are presented and discussed in the lights of the state-of-the-art of current theoretical and empirical work on NEG. A considerable effort is undertaken to identify the specific strengths and weaknesses of this attempt to explain spatial concentration of economic activities in the scope of spatial equilibrium models. Despite the fact that most of the proper economic geographers, namely in Germany, have hitherto been quite reluctant in working with NEG models and its propositions the message targeted at economic geographers is clear: they should use the huge potential of the NEG available for empirical and policy-related research more intensively than before. Thus, the decision of the Nobel Prize committee is good news not only for economists interested in spatial concentration, but for proper economic geographers as well.
Globalisierung der Wohnungswirtschaft
Authors: Hesse Markus , Preckwinkel Wiebke
Published: January 2016

Globalization of the housing industry. Potential for conflicts between tenants and international investors as a result of the privatization of municipal housing estates in Berlin, Germany. Since the year 2000 global investors have purchased a large amount of public housing estates in Germany. As a result of such privatization major conflicts have emerged between residents (mostly tenants) and the new owners. The paper aims at reconstructing the political dynamics that are associated with the new, de-territorialized logic of added-value that is overarching the globalized housing market. As a consequence, housing real estate turns out to become mobilized, thus triggering new fields of conflict at the local level. Political regulation only had a limited impact on such conflicts, since - among other reasons - in the event of the case study the local state is congruent with the former owner who was under fiscal pressure to sell the estates, at the best possible conditions regarded from the potential investor’s perspective.
Wertschöpfung in der Kreativwirtschaft
Authors: Lange Bastian , Bürkner Hans-Joachim
Published: January 2016

Creation of value in creative industries. The case of electronic club music. The paper asks how the concept of value chains can be applied to creative industries. A critical reading of neo-classical approaches shows that there is no sufficient adaptation to the peculiarities of creative industries possible, e.g. related to the question how values are created, formulated and distributed in this sector. By focussing on concrete interaction patterns, as proposed by Barnes (2008), the paper discusses an alternative approach based on empirical reconstructions of patterns of value creation within selected branches of electronic club music production in the cities of Berlin and Leipzig.
Entrepreneurship als lokales unternehmerisches Potenzial für die Regionalentwicklung im ländlichen Raum – Definition und Indikatoren
Authors: Baumgartner Daniel , Lehmann Bernard , Weber Michael , Pütz Marco
Published: January 2016

Entrepreneurship as local entrepreneurial potential for regional development in rural areas. Evidence from a Delphi-survey in Switzerland. The promotion of entrepreneurship is part of many regional policies. By implementing such policies, however, stakeholders often neither share a common interpretation of the term entrepreneurship nor do they have indicators for the measurement of entrepreneurship at hand. This paper offers both a definition and a set of indicators to measure entrepreneurship in peripheral regions. The results are based on a Delphi-survey of experts for regional development in Switzerland.
Wachstumssegment Kreuzschifffahrt
Authors: Schmid Josef
Published: January 2016

Growth industry cruise shipping. Recent dynamic development and structural effects. This article summarizes the continuous dynamic development and proven strength of the cruise industry even in the present difficult economic situation. Starting small scale in the fifties, the industry enjoyed enormous annual growth rates in the USA since the eighties and now also in Europe, in 2009 servicing worldwide ca. 17 mio. passengers. This success story was written mainly by the American “big three” cruise companies Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL, which dominate the industry with a global market share of ca. 80 %. The same oligopolistic structure characterizes the situation of shipyards with only three major European companies dominating the market and producing all vessels of reasonable size. Finally, the article provides an insight on how much the cruise industry contributes to regional development of base and destination ports and hence provides revenue to local economies and income to the population involved.
Schiffsfinanzierung in Deutschland
Authors: Saleth Jochen
Published: January 2016

Ship finance in Germany. Challenges ahead. Despite its relatively short coastline, Germany is one of the leading economies in the global shipping industry. Although the focal point of the global shipbuilding industry has shifted eastwards by degrees over the past few decades, Germany has become one of the leading economies for shipping-related services, in particular ship financing. Many of the most important lenders both private and public are located in Germany, enabling Hamburg in particular to become one of the key locations for global ship financing. However, ship financing in Germany has been heavily hit by the global financial and economic crisis since mid 2008. The partly dysfunctional lending market has led to a significant credit crunch which could endanger Germany´s leading position in the global ship financing market going forward. Some of the large commercial banks from China have recently entered the European ship financing market, and it looks like the focal point of lending capacity could shift eastwards - just as shipbuilding capacities shifted from Europe to Asia over the past few decades.
Krise überwunden – Folgeschäden bleiben
Authors: Pohl Rüdiger
Published: January 2016

Financial crisis bettered - consequential damage remains. Reflections on the financial crisis. Among the characteristics of the financial system the most unfavorable is its inherent instability. As Keynes pointed out, this instability emerges from inevitable uncertainty in financial markets. Although a much more pronounced one than the crises before the financial crisis of 2007 was a consequence of this instability. In case of a crisis the government may prevent the financial system from collapsing, as could be seen in the aftermath of 2007. However, there is no chance for an ex ante avoidance of financial crises. Even stricter regulation, which makes sense in order to strengthen the resilience of financial institutions against shocks, may only reduce but not eliminate the probability of crises. Despite its instability the financial system contributes significantly to the dynamic trend growth of the world economy. The direct costs of the 2007 crisis in terms of output losses could turn out to be relatively small on the global level. The paradigm shift in the EU regarding government debt should cause more concern. The non-bail-out-paradigm is undermined by the new European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The ESM delivers financial assistance to over-indebted member states. By this market signals will be suppressed and incentives for a debt reduction will be weakened - bad news for the Euro.
Die „Krise“ aus metapherntheoretisch geleiteter Sicht
Authors: Fuchs Martina
Published: January 2016

The “crisis” seen through the lens of metaphor theory. The article considers the “crisis” from the perspective of metaphor theory. Metaphor is understood as a semantic re-interpretation of reality in the sense that the speaker does not only transfer a sign to a different context, but creates new and innovative meaning. Metaphorical expressions bring specific characteristics into focus and are framed by social context. Following this view the paper ties in with new metaphor theories which have given important impulses to recent social and cultural studies. In 2009/2010 managers of machine tool industries as well as further regional actors in Germany were interviewed. The interviews showed that the “crisis” was understood as a ‘wave’ resp. a cyclical phenomenon, but also as a singular situation in the ‘game’ of competition. Regional differences were also uncovered: Only in the region of Stuttgart the crisis was also described as a problematic ‘path’ of regional specialisation.
Strategies of using social proximity and organizational proximity in product innovation
Authors: Fu Wenying , Schiller Daniel , Diez Javier Revilla
Published: January 2016

In this paper we investigate how the innovation behavior of firms to capitalize on social proximity with independent firms and organizational proximity with parent companies and foreign customers contributes to innovation in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China. While traditional views often hold that Chinese firms rely heavily on organizational proximity with parent companies and foreign customers to gain access to knowledge, we aim for insights into whether localized learning mechanisms based on informal social relations have emerged in the region after more than thirty years of industrialization. Based on a questionnaire survey of 359 innovative electronics firms, this paper demonstrates that firms which use social proximity to foster innovation are emerging in the PRD, and that it is mainly applied by domestic firms as a ‘spying device’ to catch up with the latest technology and market preference in order to trigger new product ideas. Nevertheless, the achievements of product innovation performance made by applying social proximity in interactive learning are fairly small, which underpins the instability of the trust-based interactive learning between firms in the region. The results of the paper provide insight into the development stage of the regional innovation system in the Pearl River Delta, calling upon an effective governance infrastructure to be put in place to stabilize interactive learning on the local scale.
Urban governance and informality in China’s Pearl River Delta
Authors: Schröder Friederike , Waibel Michael
Published: January 2016

Against the background of current economic upgrading trends in China’s so called “factory of the world“, the Pearl River Delta, this paper adopts an analytical urban governance perspective to investigate the role of informality in urban affairs. In the wake of dynamic economic and urban growth coinciding with rising environmental and social issues, local governments increasingly re-orientate their urban development strategies and apply flexible modes in responding to these challenges. The main hypothesis of this paper is that informality in particular is used as a tool of flexibility and that experimental policies as typical characteristics of the transitional process in China are widely applied nowadays to attract knowledge-intensive and service-oriented industries as well as a highly educated, and presumably creative, workforce. The hypothesis is validated by empirical research analyzing governance processes in development and locational policies of Guangzhou Science City.
Zur Diskussion. Post-Wachstums-Ökonomien – (k)ein Thema für die Wirtschaftsgeographie?
Authors: Schulz Christian
Published: January 2016

Post-growth economies - (not) a topic for economic geography? While mainstream economic geography is increasingly doing research on green manufacturing and services, its conceptual approaches merely continue relying on traditional growth paradigms. The paper confronts the partly neo-liberal discourses on the “green economy” and “smart growth” with the more critical contributions on post-growth economies. The article reveals potential research topics and opportunities for both empirical and conceptual contributions economic geographers could feed into the broader academic and societal debates on economic transition and post-growth paradigms.
Dezentrale versus zentrale Bankensysteme?
Authors: Gärtner Stefan , Flögel Franz
Published: January 2016

Decentralized versus centralized banking systems? Geographic market orientation and the location of decision-making as characteristics for a classification of banking systems. In the light of global financial integration many authors expect a homogenization of financial systems and thus the well-established classification in bank and capital market-based systems is questioned. We conceptualised an alternative classification in decentralized and centralized banking and apply this classification to the German banking system. Banking groups differ clearly in terms of their spatial distribution of employees, which we use as an approximate indicator for geographic market orientation. It was also observed that decentralized banks increased their share in the credit market at the expense of centralized banks and granted the majority of corporate loans. Compared internationally the German banking system is presumably very decentralized, however more research is needed to assess the state and influence of banking systems’ spatial organisation on a cross country base.
Land- und Ernährungswirtschaft in ländlichen Regionen
Authors: Battermann Henning Wilhelm , Deimel Mark , Theuvsen Ludwig
Published: January 2016

Agriculture in rural areas – a comparative analysis using network and cluster concepts. The article analyses the existence of cluster structures in rural areas of Lower Saxony. By comparing two areas that differ with regard to their agricultural structures and key aspects of production as well as by combining different concepts for identifying clusters, new insights into cluster structures in rural areas could be derived. It is shown that in both areas agriculture and food production are of aboveaverage importance. Whereas some authors argue that rural regions per se represent clusters of agriculture and food production, we propose a more differentiated perspective based on in-depth analyses of cluster structures in rural areas. In order to prove the existence of cluster structures in both research areas, two different approaches were used: a top-down approach measuring regional concentration of industries and a survey-based bottom-up methodology focusing on network relationships and information exchange between network actors. It is shown that both areas do not have all characteristics typical for clusters. Nonetheless, both approaches show that the region of Weser-Ems, characterized by intensive livestock production, complies better with cluster criteria than northeast Lower Saxony which is dominated by arable farming. We conclude that more clear-cut criteria for identifying cluster structures in rural areas would be helpful, not at least for political decision-making processes addressing structural policy for rural areas in which agriculture and its supply chain partners play an important economic role for the local economy due to a lack of economic alternatives.
From smart specialisation to smart experimentation
Authors: Benner Maximilian
Published: January 2016

The idea of smart specialisation has gained high prominence in the discourse about the regional policy of the European Union (EU). In the coming program period from 2014 to 2020 it is expected to be a major pillar of EU structural funds. The notion of smart specialisation incorporates some basic principles of evolutionary economics and centers on the idea of an entrepreneurial discovery process of new trajectories on the regional level. It does not, however, sufficiently take into account the relevance of individual agents, their actions, and their relations with each other in the identification, creation, development, and destruction of technological and economic trajectories. For this, a focus on micro-level dynamics is needed that provides the base for experimentation. Therefore, this paper proposes the new concept of smart experimentation. This notion aims to complement smart specialisation. It is anchored not only in evolutionary economics, but also in relational economic geography.
Intergovernmental fiscal transfers to support local conservation action in Europe
Authors: Schröter-Schlaack Christoph , Ring Irene , Koellner Thomas , Santos Rui , Antunes Paula , Clemente Pedro , Mathevet Raphaël , Borie Maud , Grodzińska-Jurczak Małgorzata
Published: January 2016

Against the background of ongoing biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, there is a need for more conservation efforts at all governance levels that also take into account the needs of subnational governments, cities and other local authorities. This paper presents a rationale for including ecological indicators in intergovernmental fiscal transfers that redistribute public revenue from national and regional state governments to decentralised governments. Although recommended for introduction in a number of European countries (such as Germany and Poland), to date only Portugal and to some extent France have implemented fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation in Europe. In this paper we provide, first, a review of existing and proposed schemes across Europe, classifying them in relation to the stages of a policy cycle. Second, we identify critical design features of ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) in order to develop recommendations for improving existing or introducing new EFT schemes.
Imperialisten, Spione oder Retter?
Authors: Golinski Sophie , Henn Sebastian
Published: January 2016

Imperialists, spies or rescuers? Characterization of direct investments from Russia, India and China in German daily newspapers. Direct investments originating from Russia, India and China in Western countries not only have grown in number but also have raised diverse public resentments. These reservations can partly be attributed to media reports that by transporting distinct views and evaluations influence the recipients’ perceptions and thus help to shape public acceptance of foreign investors - an aspect hardly been reflected in the literature so far. Aiming at elaborating both the content of the discourse and the positions attributed to the investors in two German daily papers, this study applies discourse analysis as systematic content analysis. Its results show that the primary focus of the analysed articles has been put on employment-intensive brownfield investments and that the investors are associated with different basic positions that not only root in the companies themselves but rather in images attributed to their countries of origin.
Die Macht der Zahlen
Authors: Bitterer Nadine , Heeg Susanne
Published: January 2016

The power of figures. Calculative practices in the real estate industry. This article examines the role and importance of calculative practices in the process of establishing a global property market. We argue that these practices have contributed to the transformation of the property market into a calculable relation which makes it possible to perceive and assess the real estate market and its objects internationally. Comparability - which includes the transformation of social, political and economic conditions into numbers - has created the context in which investment decisions take place because they suggest transparency and calculability. These practices are created and shared in a network of global real estate professionals and go along with strategies of territorializing and delineating markets. Yet, as we will argue, some local characteristics prove to be persistent and difficult to handle in global calculations. Thus, assessing global real estate markets still implies the challenge to combine local knowledge and global calculation.