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.     

Producer Services,Transaction Activities,and Cities: Rethinking Occupational Categories in Economic Geography

Applying insights from 'new institutional economics' to classify economic activities or occupations avoids some problems for which conventional classifications of services and particularly producer services have long been criticized. In institutionalist thinking the mixture of organizational forms such as market, hierarchy or network in an economy is mainly determined by transaction costs, which can in turn be correlated to specific 'transaction activities'. Typical transaction activities can be identified in markets and in other institutional arrangements, allowing the classification of real economic activities, occupations or firms as transactional or not. Many other commonly applied labels like informational related activities appear comparatively imprecise. This categorization and differentiation sheds new light on discussions about spatial development, from the world city debate to claims about the presumed role of high-tech occupations in metropolitan areas. It is argued that transactional occupations, especially those requiring higher qualifications, can be expected to be highly concentrated in larger agglomerations. In contrast, many non-transactional occupations though requiring high qualifications and usually also regarded as basic for metropolitan economies, like parts of R&D, are not necessarily concentrated there.     

Innovation Networks and Regional Development—Evidence from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS): Theoretical Concepts,Methodological Approach,Empirical Basis and Introduction to the Theme Issue

A general consensus exists in the debate on innovation-oriented regional development, in which cooperation in innovation between manufacturing firms, service firms and research institutions continues to grow in importance with respect to business success and the economic performance of a region—at least for some region types. The academic discussion, thus far, has been shaped by a large number of outstanding theoretical studies focusing on this topic from the perspective of the innovative milieu concept, the network theory (spatial version), the regional innovation systems approach or the transaction cost theory. Up to now, comparative empirical studies have not been performed evaluating the significance of innovation networks over a sufficiently large and statistically representative data set for the various types of regions. This is the goal of this issue of European Planning Studies, which is introduced in this article. Briefly, the basic concepts for explaining network-oriented regional development are described and the essential features of the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS) are presented—developed by a research team of German economic geographers and regional economists. Between 1995 and 1999 ERIS carried out three extensive surveys in 11 European regions with a total return of 8635 questionnaires, in an effort to identify, systematize, and quantify linkages between innovative players. The question of the range of such innovative linkages plays a central role in this analysis.     

Ethnographic filming: The scientific approach

Waika (Südamerika, Venezuela): Gewinnen von Curare und Herstellen von Giftpfeil‐Spitzen. Directed by Hermann Schlenker. Encylopaedia Cinematographica (EC) E 2001, color, 17 min., 1975. DM 952, 50.

!ko‐Buschmänner (Südafrika, Kalahari): Spiel “Oryx‐Antilope"mit einer Auseinandersetzung zwischen zwei Spielgruppen. Directed by Dieter Heunemann and H. J. Heinz. EC‐E 2107, color with synchronous sound, 11 min., 1975. DM 691,50.

Kirchfest “Romaria” von S. Bartolomeu do Mar (Südwest‐Europa, Portugal). Directed by Franz Simon. EC‐E 1889, color with synchronous sound, 21,5 min., 1973. DM 1311, 00.

Bali (Indonesien): Doppelikat in Tenganan Pegeringsingan. Directed by Urs Ramseyer and Nicole Ramseyer‐Gygi. A series of four films: EC‐E 2416, 43 min., DM 2896, 50; E 2417, 34 min., DM 2025,00; E 2418, 28 min., DM 1642,50; E 2419, 36 min., DM 2031,00. Color with German commentary 1978.     

The Creative Economy: Vision or Illusion in the Structural Change?

This contribution discusses the hopes associated with the rise of the creative industries and gives explanations for the debates in politics, science and the media. In doing so, our underlying thesis is that the culture and creative economy is a virtual sector and that a uniform promotion—also by means of staged events that attract a lot of media attention—needs to be challenged. In a further step, the scientific implications will also be outlined on the basis of the term's “career” in the public debate. A brief analysis of the empiricism of the creative economy will provide further insight into its real significance and demonstrate possible definitional weaknesses of the term. The creative industries are an essential element of modern economic infrastructure. They will play an important role in the future, especially for cluster strategies. However, the scientific research so far is not able to reach more accurate conclusions regarding the effects of governance on the culture and creative industry. Therefore, this contribution shows future research fields. We will conclude by venturing an outlook on the further development of the sector and demonstrate its social and economic effects using the example of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia.     

Australian Cainozoic Bryozoa, 1: Nudicella gen. nov. (Onychocellidae,Cheilostomata): taxonomy,palaeoenvironments and biogeography

The new bryozoan genus Nudicella (Onychocellidae, Cheilostomata) is proposed to accommodate the common and widespread Australian Cainozoic cheilostome bryozoan Eschara clarkei Tenison Woods, which is redescribed and subdivided into four species: N. clarkei (Tenison Woods), N. cribriforma sp. nov., N. latiramosa sp. nov. and N. tenuis sp. nov. Cellaria gigantea Maplestone is also reassigned to Nudicella. Colonies of this genus display a wide variety of growth forms, including cribrate fenestrate, flat robust branching, foliose, delicate branching and encrusting; their occurrences correlate with changes in sedimentary facies and palaeoenvironments. The distinctive cribrate style of fenestrate growth form has evolved convergently in unrelated bryozoan groups at various geological intervals. It is found in a wide variety of sedimentary facies, as in other coexisting opportunistic genera such as Celleporaria, indicating a wide ecological tolerance. The oldest recorded occurrence of Nudicella is in the Paleocene of north western Australia. From there it appears to spread south in the Eocene and then east towards the Otway Basin in southeastern Australia, where it occurs in the Oligocene and Miocene; no post-Miocene representatives of this genus are yet known.