Lisa De Propris

Innovation And Inter-Firm Co-Operation: The Case Of The West Midlands

Drawing upon the innovative milieux and industrial districts literature, the paper provides substantial empirical evidence that firms have a greater chance of being innovative if they co-operate with other firms over innovation, albeit undertaking no investment in RLD. This is an important result especially for small firms. In particular, the paper focuses on inter-firm cwperation along the supply chain, using a swey of firms in the West Midlands to investi-gate co-operation over innovation between suppliers and buyers. A probit model is used to test the link between innovation performance and four innovation inputs: R&D expenditure, R&D personnel, networking with suppliers and networking with client firms.

A policy agenda for EU smart growth: the role of creative and cultural industries

The argument developed in this paper is that a resilient economy requires a growth agenda that is underpinned by a balanced industrial mix, the development and adoption of new knowledge or technological platforms, and risk taking in radical and incremental innovations as well as in soft and hard innovations. In other words, it is desirable to promote a sustainable and endogenous way to ‘reset’ the economy – borrowing the phrase from this study by Florida – by endorsing a growth agenda that includes also creative and cultural industries. It will further be argued that a policy agenda for the EUs economic growth takes little account of the opportunities and potential of creative and cultural industries, favouring hard technologies and services. A growing literature is starting to highlight the innovation capacity of cultural and creative industries as they intersect the innovation processes of other manufacturing and services sectors with innovative and creative outputs. The indecision of EU policy-makers on how to take advantage of creative and cultural industries for the delivery of a Smart Europe – as part of the Europe 2020 agenda – translates into a lack of commitment to such industries and indeed to a clear cohesion agenda. We make a strong case for EU policy-making to break the deadlock and clearly spell out a policy agenda that has an effective spatial dimension and that directly interfaces with its innovation policy.

Systemic Flexibility, Production Fragmentation and Cluster Governance

The recent process of production fragmentation and the rapid growth of firm clusters have been explained by the increasing need for output flexibility. Although the mainstream literature relates flexibility mostly to labour adjustments, this paper investigates sources of flexibility as being related to forms of inter-firm production. Two extreme cases are compared: industrial districts and monopsonistic clusters. The nature and the implications of production flexibility are discussed in both settings. It is argued that the governance structure of industrial districts affects the dynamics of inter-firm linkages, which in turn enables systemic flexibility to be achieved.The recent process of production fragmentation and the rapid growth of firm clusters have been explained by the increasing need for output flexibility. Although the mainstream literature relates flexibility mostly to labour adjustments, this paper investigates sources of flexibility as being related to forms of inter-firm production. Two extreme cases are compared: industrial districts and monopsonistic clusters. The nature and the implications of production flexibility are discussed in both settings. It is argued that the governance structure of industrial districts affects the dynamics of inter-firm linkages, which in turn enables systemic flexibility to be achieved.

local industrial systems and the location of FDI in Italy

This article investigates the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) location across Italian provinces. Specifically it examines the relationship between industry‐specific local industrial systems and the location of inward FDI. This extends previous analysis beyond the mere density of activity, to illustrate the importance of the specific nature of agglomerations in attracting inward investment. The article develops a model of FDI location choice using a unique FDI database stratified by industry and province. The results also suggest that the importance of agglomeration differs between industries, and offers some explanation for this.

The 1988 reform of the European Structural Funds: entitlement or empowerment?

With the reform of the Structural Funds, regions have gained a key role in the design and implementation of regional policy. Yet some of the weakest regions were not equipped with appropriate institutional structures and have struggled to benefit. In evaluating the reform, we revisit concepts such as justice and equity. While the reform may have given regions an entitlement to participate, we argue that some have lacked the capacity to do so effectively. In this context, enlargement raises questions over the future of the Funds, and how far a commitment to cohesion and convergence can be maintained.

The internationalisation of production systems: embeddedness, openness and governance

The paper explores the process of production internationalisation of local production systems with a special concern for the tension between embeddedness and openness, and with the governance structure of international networking. Local production systems are prompted to look beyond their local borders by the need to access knowledge, competences, as well as goods and services. Beyond a concern with territory, the possibility of multinational networks has been conceptualised as a mesh of local production systems cemented by production and socioeconomic relations. Drawing on the conceptual hypothesis of multinational networks, the paper proceeds to analyse the process of international outsourcing of Italian industrial districts as an application. The opening up of districts has taken place at the same time as a process of internal hierarchisation due to the emergence of leading groups. The paper reflects on how industrial districts have tended to generate abroad similar forms of agglomerations replicating the industrial district model, as well as presenting some preliminary considerations on the link between the governance of the local production system and the governance of its external networks.

The geography of creative industries in Europe: Comparing France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain

The research tackles the lack of cross-country comparative studies on the geography of creative industries and provides their comparative geography in four European countries: France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. We use local labour markets as territorial units of analysis and divide creative industries in traditional and non- traditional. This allows to overcome the limitations of the region as unit of analysis and to better understand the type of creativity embedded in each country and territory. The results reveals differentiate national profiles regarding the type of creativity and its spatial distribution, and that the employment in creative industries is more concentrated than in the rest of sectors. Large creative hubs emerge around London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Barcelona and Roma.

Creative Clusters and Governance: The Dominance of the Hollywood Film Cluster

This book analyses the economic development of cities from the ‘cultural economy’ and ‘creative industry’ perspectives, examining and differentiating them as two related but distinct segments of contemporary city economies. The authors argue that although they are normally conflated, the first is largely subsidized while the second is highly entrepreneurial hence they actually make very different kinds of contribution to a city’s character, attractiveness and competitiveness.

Public Policy for Economic Competitiveness: An Analytical Framework and a Research Agenda

Abstract The prime concern is to highlight the strategic choice framework (SCF) for analysing localities’ economic development and competitiveness policies in the context of globalisation. The SCF is centred on hypotheses relating to the governance of production, where ‘governance’ is understood in terms of the processes and associated structures for identifying and making strategic choices. The argument is illustrated from discussions of current realities at micro, meso and macro levels, and from analyses of the potential for ‘democratic’ development paths. This leads to an explicit focus on competitiveness policies. The conceptualisation of ‘competitiveness’ is discussed, and we advocate a focus on the degree to which policies serve the democratically determined public interest. The paper’s secondary concern is to highlight implications of the SCF for the research agenda. We envisage an emphasis on boundary spanning research. It is suggested that the SCF be applied in the context of experiences in actual localities, in diverse forms of enterprise, and in networking and clusters; and that the SCF be deepened by focusing on aspects of three topics: economic democracy, economic performance and policy evaluation.

Editorial: Recession, Recovery and Resilience?

This themed issue comprises three papers exploring the impact of the financial crisis on regions and regional resilience in the UK and Italy. In so doing, it adds to a rich stream of work in regional studies that has studied the impact of the global financial crisis and credit crunch on regions and sub-regions around the world from a variety of angles. Such studies have included, inter alia, the effects on employment (SENSIER and ARTIS, 2014); involuntary non-standard employment (GREEN and LIVANOS, 2013); financial flows (HALL and LEYSHON, 2013); access to finance (APPLEYARD, 2013); investment (HEBB and SHARMA, 2014); housing and uneven spatial development (HINCKS et al., 2013); and regional growth (MARTIN, 2012; FINGLETON et al., 2012). Muchof thiswork unpacking such regional and spatial impacts has situated such impacts within the longer-run economic challenges facing regions, e.g. work by TAULBUT and ROBINSON (2014) on the availability of job vacancies and byDAWLEY et al. (2014) on the enduring occupational structures of regional labour markets. The latter consider how industrial regions may suffer from processes of occupational disadvantage that curtail such regions’ adaptive capacity and their ability to diversify into new trajectories or to upgrade activities and employment. Similarly, in examining the impact of the financial crisis on regional innovation practices and structures in manufacturing, BATHELT et al. (2013) see regional economic development trajectories being routinely ruptured by different types of crises. These have impacts on regional linkages and networks, in turn leading to possible changes in trajectories or triggering path-shifting processes that require an ability to mobilize and recombine agents and resources into new development frameworks (BATHELT et al., 2013). The ability of regions to take new paths may in turn be related to their degree of ‘related’ and ‘unrelated’ variety, concepts developed by FRENKEN et al. (2007). They argued that the prospects for regional novelty may be more positive in the context of regional economic structures that span many distinct but related activities that may offer scope for interaction and innovation and the ability to fill ‘missing spaces’. That in turn has been questioned most recently by KEMENY and STORPER (2014) who note that such notions are in fact sensitive to the theoretical language used to describe them. Why some regions are able to better weather economic shocks than others, and in particular the performance and adaptability of regions in the wake of shocks has, of course, most recently been explored extensively via the contested concept of resilience (MARTIN, 2012; SIMMIE and MARTIN, 2010; CHRISTOPHERSON et al., 2010; HASSINK, 2010). As BRISTOW and HEALY (2014) note, a distinction can be made between the engineering conception of resilience as against a concept that is derived from complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory. The latter ecosystems-derived definition is that preferred by researchers in the evolutionary economic geography (EEG) field because of synergies with EEG ideas on path dependency, evolution and the non-equilibrium nature of regional economic development BRISTOW and HEALY, 2014). Regional economic resilience from this viewpoint is explored, for example, by PIKE et al. (2010) and SIMMIE and MARTIN (2010), the latter emphasizing that resilience is related to a region’s ‘adaptive ability’. This evolutionary perspective is taken further by MARTIN (2012), who links the concept of resilience to hysteresis. In so doing he explores four dimensions of regional resilience: resistance (the degree of sensitivity or depth of reaction to a recessionary shock); recovery (the speed and degree of recovery from a recessionary shock); reorientation (the extent of reorientation and adaption in response to recessionary shock); and renewal (the extent to which the regional economy renews its growth path, whether a pre-recession path or hysteretic shift to a new path). The latter approach of Martin is used by BAILEY and BERKELEY (2014) in this themed issue. In a similar vein, HOLM and OSTERGAARD (2013) argue that resilience is an adaptive capability comprising the ability to resist shocks, to make small or large changes, and either recover, reorientate or transform, and where the aspects and sources of resilience vary across regions. Most recently, BOSCHMA (2014) sees the concept of resilience as the long-term ability of regions to develop new growth paths. He argues that resilient regions are capable of overcoming a trade-off between adaptation and adaptability, as embodied in related and unrelated variety, loosely coupled networks, and loosely coherent institutional structures. This Regional Studies, 2014