High-tech development and spatial planning: comparing the Netherlands and Taiwan from an institutional perspective

High-tech development has been broadly accepted as a prominent matter of regional development policies and plans at the global level. Strategies to enhance it have evident implications for spatial planning policies, plans and visions. Consequently, careful attention should be paid to the role that spatial planning policies play in the national and regional efforts to advance high-tech development in a particular place. This study addresses the relationship between the spatial planning system and high-tech development, searching to explain the spatial implications resulting from this relationship. It approaches the topic by comparing high-tech development experiences in the Netherlands and Taiwan from an institutional perspective. Although both countries have used a range of spatial strategies for economic growth through high-tech development, the results show that their different institutional settings, power relations between different levels of government and conceptions of science park have led to the implementation of two very distinct spatial strategies, shaping different spatial patterns of high-tech development clustering in these two regions. The findings demonstrate the potential of the institutional approach to study international planning issues, and contribute to theories of high-tech development and spatial planning.     

New High-Tech Industries and Windows of Locational Opportunity: The Role OfLabour Markets and Knowledge Institutions During the Industrial Era

This paper presents a theoretical concept (the so-called“Open Windows of Locational Opportunity” concept, or OWLO concept) which provides an explanation for why it is rather uncertain and unpredictable where new high-technology industries will emerge in space. This is due to three tightly linked features of new high-tech industries. Firstly, new high-tech industries reflect a high rate of discontinuity because they place new demandson their local production environment. Secondly, due to this mismatch, new high-tech industries depend on their creative ability to generate or attract their own favourable production environment. This creative capacity compensates for the lack of specific local stimuli, as associated with their discontinuous nature. Thirdly, the OWLO concept claims that chance events may have a considerable impact on the place where new industries emerge. This is because it remains unpredictable at which place potentially favourable resources of a generic nature set in motion a creative process which brings increasing returns (that is, “localization economies”) into the local production environment. As a consequence, many regions are considered to be in a more or less equal position to develop new high-tech industries during their initialstage of growth, despite their different techno-industrial histories. We have further illustrated this OWLO concept by linking it to the problem of whether regional labour markets and knowledge institutions may facilitate the ability of regions to generate new high-tech industries, despite the fact that these require new knowledge and skills. We made an attempt to specify in broad terms the extent to which local supplies of labour and institutionalized knowledge may have influenced the place where so-called new clusters of innovative industries emerged in Great Britain and Belgium during the industrial epoch. We presented some evi-dence that the three key notions of the OWLO concept described above have indeed been features of the spatial emergence of many new clusters in both countries during their initial stage of development.     

Regional Innovation Systems and the Role of State: Institutional Design and State Universities in Turkey

This paper investigates the role of state played in the regional innovation systems through state universities and legal and institutional set-up within Turkey. Initially, the paper will discuss the lack of regional perspective in policy-making that, until very recently, was predominant in Turkey. Secondly, the paper examines two salient laws that have ramifications for regional economics. The key elements in regional innovation systems can be split apart into two sections. On one side there are technology development regions/centres, and university–industry joint research centres. On the other side, taking into account the public research undertaken, there are the state universities, and the role that they play in the earlier mentioned centres/regions. The econometric analysis asserts that each of these elements has a positive and statistically significant effect on the patenting performance of regions.     

Determinants of the Uneven Regional Participation of Firms in European Technology Programmes. The 'Low R&D Trap'

Technology is of key importance to the growth of regional firms and economies. Research has shown the association between low technology development or take-up and regional disparities. Hence technology policy is moving closer to the heart of regional policies. European innovation programmes are intended to involve firms, large and small, in international technology research and development networks. The paper focuses on the involvement of Spanish firms in such programmes. Participation tends to be low if business R&D, presence of large firms, and the development of regional innovation systems are also low. Creation of R&D infrastructure through the Structural Funds has now to be prioritized at EU level and also define a new scheme of sectoral priorities in order to support R&D innovation activities in fields diverse from high-tech, if regions are to escape the 'low R&D trap'.     

Internet Domains and the Innovativeness of Cities/Regions--Evidence from Germany and Munich

This paper focuses on the factors determining a region's ability to produce Internet content and tries to identify relationships with the role of the same region in the national and global economy. The number of .de-domains is used to measure Internet content production, which serves as an indicator for the innovativeness of the regions in an emerging part of the service economy. Data used for the spatial distribution of .de-domains (1.2 million names at the end of 1999) is original and has not been published before. In the first part of the paper the development of the number of Internet domain names in German regions is described and independent variables to explain the spatial structure are analysed. Results show that those variables that are associated with potentials to create and commercialize new knowledge are especially suited to explain the regions' relative frequencies in domain name counts. However, no single hypothesis alone is able to explain the spatial structure of .de-domains, rather a mixture of factors indicating external economies, creation of knowledge and highly qualified labour is best. The knowledge and attitude of these individuals is crucial for the adaptation and diffusion of an innovation like the Internet. Thus, the Internet does not create new regions but it replicates, at least in Germany, the well-known ranking of regions in terms of high-tech. Concerning high-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services, Munich has stood at the top of German regions for about 15 years; this region will be analysed in the second part of the paper. Munich's national and global competitiveness depends mainly, as for other regions, on the innovativeness of its firms, research institutions, and people. The capability of Internet domain names as an indicator for regional innovativeness is the better the younger this innovation is. Despite the rather decentralized spatial structure of Germany (see the very low primacy index), compared, e.g. with the UK and France, Munich stands out in terms of the number of domain names. Munich's role in the national and global economy is supported by the early adoption of the Internet by the local firms and private users - and vice versa! If one considers the Internet as a basic innovation in the sense of Schumpeter's long wave approach then new combinations of resources in new or old regions can lead to strong national growth, but attended by increasing disparities between regions within the respective nation. We may distinguish two driving forces: the Internet as the basic innovation and the export of the respective content production to other parts of the global economy. Munich serves as a proof for the hypothesis that regions with a large potential of Internet production are also able to export these contents into other parts of the world. Zook's work on regional economic impacts of the Internet on US regions shows that regions with above-average Internet content production and marketing activities do profit significantly from the multiplicator and spin-off-effects of the related exports. Thus, although information can be distributed by the Internet in very short time to all places in the world, it nevertheless produces uneven economic landscapes (and in part manifest the old landscape) that sees the regions with strong Internet content production in a much better position than regions where the Internet consumption prevails, although this still has to be analysed for German regions.     

SCALE ECONOMIES,REGIONAL EXTERNALITIES,AND THE POSSIBILITY OF UNEVEN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT*

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a model of regional development which attempts to explain differing patterns of growth in two regions. The model is an extension of Krugman's model of uneven development, but it incorporates not only scale economies within each region but also regional externalities across the regions. Depending on relative magnitudes of net scale economies of the two regions, the model entails different regional development patterns: uneven development, stable or joint development, or a mix of the two. The novel feature of the present model is that different regional development patterns can be explained within the same analytical framework.     

What Kind of Entrepreneurship Drives Regional Development in European Non-core Regions? A Literature Review on Empirical Entrepreneurship Research

Regional policies across Europe aim at stimulating regional development in non-core regions through fostering entrepreneurship. However, the policies applied in non-core regions and the concepts of entrepreneurship these policies are based on differ. Therefore, the goal of this review is to identify different understandings of entrepreneurship and their role for regional development processes in European non-core regions. To this end, empirical studies investigating entrepreneurship in European non-core regions from 1999 to 2011 were analysed. The results of the analysis are presented along three drivers and outcomes of entrepreneurship identified inductively from the literature: innovation, social capital and institutional change. We made out seven different types of entrepreneurship in European non-core regions. These seven types of entrepreneurship comprise particular mechanisms through which they stimulate regional development. Further research should study the interplay between these different mechanisms of regional development in non-core regions which may induce a more territorial approach to understand entrepreneurship in non-core regions across Europe.     

Regional development and institutions in Hungary: past,present and future development

The author investigates what the transition from planned to market economy implies for regional development in Hungary. The focus is the role of institutional change to economic development of the regions. After 1989, new regional and local institutions were created, supported by the Poland and Hungary Action for Researching the Economy programme. The old three‐level regional administration was redefined, but resources are few and competences unclear. The new institutions’ ‘bottom‐up’ approach and their business‐orientation seem to match the conditions of the prosperous west, while they meet considerable difficulties in the depressed east. Alternatively, coordinated government action and cooperation between enterprises and administrators may represent a key to development.     

ACCOUNTING FOR NEIGHBORING EFFECTS IN MEASURES OF SPATIAL CONCENTRATION*

ABSTRACT A common problem with spatial economic concentration measures based on areal data (e.g., Gini, Herfindhal, entropy, and Ellison‐Glaeser indices) is accounting for the position of regions in space. While they purport to measure spatial clustering, these statistics are confined to calculations within individual areal units. They are insensitive to the proximity of regions or to neighboring effects. Clearly, since spillovers do not recognize areal units, economic clusters may cross regional boundaries. Yet with current measures, any industrial agglomeration that traverses boundaries will be chopped into two or more pieces. Activity in adjacent spatial units is treated in exactly the same way as activity in far‐flung, nonadjacent areas. This paper shows how popular measures of spatial concentration relying on areal data can be modified to account for neighboring effects. With a U.S. application, we also demonstrate that the new instruments we propose are easy to implement and can be valuable in regional analysis.     

Multinational Knowledge Strategies,Policy and the Upgrading Process of Regions: Revisiting the Automotive Industry in Ostrava and Shanghai

This paper revisits how and why new multinational knowledge-based strategies and multi-level governmental policies influence the upgrading process of regions in developing economies. Automotive multinationals traditionally exploited local asset conditions, but it is shown that they have also been contributing to knowledge-generation systems via investments in R&D centres and cooperation with regional knowledge producers. We discern three elements of the upgrading process of regions—upgrading of domestic firms, subsidiary evolution and establishment of strategic relations with local knowledge institutes—to analyse two case studies: Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Shanghai (China). The cases show that all types of upgrading—product, process, chain and functional—have taken place in the last years, and that follow sourcing may have a positive impact on regional upgrading. These observations provide lessons for governments in developing economies which aim to strengthen innovation-based regional development.     

The regional impact of the channel tunnel: Qualitative and quantitative analysis

The paper addresses the question of how different types of regions mill be affected by the development of a major new transport infrastructure such as the Channel Tunnel. It summarizes a study on the regional impacts of the Channel Tunnel throughout the European Union (EU). The research design combined qualitative methods of futures exploration employing 13 regional case studies with quantitative forecasting techniques using the MEPLAN transport and economic model. The paper presents the methodology and major results of the two approaches with respect to the impacts of the Channel Tunnel on transport flows and regional development in Europe and draws conclusions for transport and regional policy of the EU. The paper demonstrates that the removal of a bottleneck like the Channel Tunnel does not necessarily induce economic gains in all adjacent regions. Much more important for regional economic development than the reduction of transport costs are the image to be a region well integrated into the European high‐speed transport network and an active political response of the region to take advantage of opportunities like the Channel Tunnel.     

Branding Knowledge-intensive Regions: A Comparative Study of Pisa and Oulu High-Tech Brands

Place marketing and branding have drawn much attention both in the literature and in practice especially in the 1990s and 2000s. However, the research literature of place branding related to the dynamic evolution of knowledge-intensive regions is limited. This article aims at providing an analysis of place branding processes in knowledge-intensive regions in relation to the evolution of their high-tech clusters, in an attempt to identify the relation between brand development and cluster performance from a longitudinal perspective. The article discusses the results of a multiple case study, including Pisa, Italy and Oulu, Finland. The findings suggest that, in these two cases, branding consisted more in labelling an existing economic phenomenon rather than in fostering or having a bet on it in a visionary way. This is related to the political nature of branding which may provoke a mismatch between the timing of the high-tech cluster dynamics and the timing of branding initiatives, a mismatch which is likely to affect branding effectiveness and which should be considered when evaluating branding impacts.     

国家级高新技术产业开发区发展能力与分类研究

利用评估指标和实证统计数据,运用因子分析和聚类分析组合方法,对我国53个国家级高新技术产业开发区发展能力及区划进行了因素分析和分类的综合集成实证研究。     

University–Regional Partnership in a Period of Structural Adjustment: Lessons from Southern Adelaide's Response to an Automobile Plant Closure

This paper examines some of the issues that arise out of partnerships between universities and regions. It draws upon the experience of Flinders University in working with a range of regional agents in responding to the closure of the Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) plant at Lonsdale in Adelaide's southern suburbs. The paper suggests that there are a number of hurdles to the establishment of effective partnerships that include: the perception that universities behave in ways that are different to either public or private sector organizations; the absence of universities from the networks and communication protocols central to the work of economic development practitioners; the sporadic nature of university engagement with regional issues; and, the gap between university funding models and local economic aspirations. The paper also finds that government-established mechanisms for regional development may be flawed, especially if they are dominated by representatives of the public sector. The research concludes that current policy preoccupations with the development of commercially valuable intellectual property results in a heavy discounting of other economic impacts. Finally, the paper argues that a pathway for effective engagement between universities and their regions can be established, but such initiatives require considerable time, patience and understanding on the part of all parties. Periods of regional economic stress may not be the most appropriate periods for establishing these working relationships.     

Neoliberalism and the Institutions for Regional Development in Australia

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short‐term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.     

振兴东北构建哈大都市经济带的作用与对策

东北老工业基地振兴的关键是经济转型和城市重建,本文在分析目前东北振兴发展的国内外经济形势的基础上,依据区域经济发展相关理论,对东北区域经济与城市系统进行辨识,提出了按照产业集聚与大都市圈空间重组的城市化机制与模式,引导东北区域经济结构调整和城市重建,即沿经济基础雄厚的以重化工业为主的哈尔滨-长春-沈阳-大连交通干线及其腹地,通过建设"门户城市",发挥大城市的集聚功能,增强中心城市的实力,发挥"以点带面"的作用,带动周边地区的发展;借鉴国际经验,运用财政税收政策,促进中小企业、民营企业的发展;通过基础创新和模仿创新,掌握核心技术,推动产业开发,产品优化,工艺提升,营销、运输和服务的变革,加速企业经营现代化的进程;依托区域科技优势,实现地区知识资源的优化配置,促进高新技术产业的发展,达到高新技术产业与传统产业的融和,构建东北哈大都市经济带,促进东北老工业基地全面发展的建议。     

制度对于区域产业发展的影响研究——上海与深圳高科技产业发展比较

制度决定了交易成本,对于经济增长至关重要。产权确定了人与人之间使用稀缺资源的相互关系。有效率的产权应该具有排他性,根据排他性的程度产权可以分为私有产权与公有产权。制度和产权的变迁具有路径依赖特性。政府在制度和产权安排方面具有几乎垄断性的优势。上海与深圳的高科技产业发展比较,支持和验证了以上理论假设和判断。上海的高科技产业具有更大的规模和更广的行业门类,而深圳的高科技产业则具有更强的技术创新能力和更好的经济绩效。前者归咎于上海长期以来雄厚的产业基础,而后者则显示出制度对于区域产业发展模式乃至绩效的影响。不同的制度文化背景决定了高科技产业发展的不同制度安排。制度安排上的差异进而导致两地高科技产业发展绩效不同。     

Venture Investments in Israel—a Regional Perspective

This paper analyses the geographic distribution of venture investments in start-ups in Israel, using data for the period 1995–2004. The findings show that their location behaviour differs from that of high-tech activities: they show a pattern of “dispersed concentration” (as compared with a pattern of “concentrated concentration” of high-tech activity), with high levels of concentration in focal places, but at a commuting distance from the main metropolis. This is explained by the fact that venture investors also play the role of entrepreneurs and managers. The comparison between different types of venture investors shows that local venture capital funds lead to the heaviest concentration in the metropolis, in comparison with foreign venture investors. This heavy concentration of venture investments implies increasing regional gaps, with a minimal participation of peripheral regions, even those that enjoy some high-tech activity.     

Path-development trajectories and barriers perceived by stakeholders in two Central European less developed regions: narrow or broad choice?

This paper aims at the comprehension of feasible development trajectories conceptualized within the new path-development model in the case of two less developed regions in Central Europe (CE). The main new element of this paper comprises the examination of the perception of key barriers and mechanisms hindering particular evolutionary trajectories by regional stakeholders and their comparison with those conceptualized in the literature. Although conceptual characteristics of prevailing path types in different regional innovation systems do exist, empirical verification from less developed regions such as those in CE is insufficient. On the basis of interviews with regional stakeholders, a typology of barriers for pathways conceptualized to date was elaborated from a CE perspective. Our study showed that the feasibility of a more radical path is hindered by a wide range of barriers operating at different levels. The elaborated typology of barriers for various path-development trajectories outlined the main hindrances constraining key regional actors, linkages and institutions. Given the general weakness of the overall RIS, path-extension and path-modernization trajectories are bound to be the most realistic options for this type of less developed regions. Our study revealed existing regional dynamics as built predominately upon incremental changes within rooted but prospective industrial branches.     

Re-thinking non-core regions: planning strategies and practices beyond growth

ABSTRACT

Periods of ongoing growth in the economy and demographics have come to a halt for many European regions for various reasons, challenging their economic development prospects. Despite the heterogeneous nature of stagnation, decline, peripheralization or even stigmatization to be found there, these configurations ‘beyond growth’ have in common that short-term ‘fire-fighting’ policy approaches aiming to foster regional economic growth face some important limitations. We argue that this has to do, among other things, with the overall direction of established and orthodox planning approaches that are predominantly based on growth-oriented paradigms and implicitly or explicitly work with dichotomous categories such as core–periphery and metropolitan versus non-metropolitan spaces; these do, however, not capture local realities in these cases. Using the notion of non-core regions, we plead for conceptualizing non-core regions and their regional economic development trajectories in different ways: thinking ‘beyond growth’. Such alternative ideas should be informed by alternative understandings of growth, development and sustainability in order to influence theories and concepts, but also to support new approaches to planning practice. To this aim, we discuss non-core regions from a social constructivist perspective, elaborating some points of departure for conceptualizing and practising regional planning ‘beyond growth’.