O.A.L.C. Atzema

With or Without Clusters: Facilitating Innovation through a Differentiated and Combined Network Approach

Over the past decades, economic and innovation policy across Europe moved in the direction of creating regional clusters of related firms and institutions. Creating clusters through public policy is risky, complex and costly, however. Moreover, it is not necessary to rely on clusters to stimulate innovation. A differentiated and combined network approach to enhancing innovation and stimulating economic growth may be more efficient and effective, especially though not exclusively in regions lacking clusters. The challenge of such a policy is to mitigate the bottlenecks associated with “global pipeline”, “local buzz” and “stand alone” strategies used by innovative firms and to combine these strategies with a view to their complementarity in terms of knowledge effects. Private and semi-public brokers will be key in the evolving policy, as timely organizational change is crucial for continued innovation, while brokers also need to mitigate governance problems. This requires region-specific knowledge in terms of sectors, life cycles, institutional and socio-cultural factors, and yields spatially differentiated and differentiating adjustment strategies. The role of public policy is to assist in recruiting, provide start-up funding and monitor brokers. With this, policy moves towards a decentralized, process-based, region-specific, spatially diverging and multi-level system of innovation that is geared towards the evolving innovation strategies of firms.

Urban Amenities and Agglomeration Economies? The Locational Behaviour and Economic Success of Dutch Fashion Design Entrepreneurs

The spatial clustering of industries is traditionally explained by agglomeration economies benefiting co-located firms. The focus on firms rather than people has been challenged by Florida arguing that urban amenities attract creative people to certain cities. On the basis of a questionnaire, an analysis is made of the extent to which these two mechanisms affect the locational behaviour of Dutch fashion design entrepreneurs. It is found that fashion design entrepreneurs consider urban amenities to be more important than agglomeration economies for their location decision. Designers located in the Amsterdam cluster do not profit from agglomeration economies as such, but rather from superior networking opportunities with peers both within and outside the cluster.

Cyberspace Meets High Street: Adoption of Click-and-Mortar Strategies by Retail Outlets in City Centers

In this paper, we empirically investigate how store-based retailers in different urban settings responded to the emergence of the Internet as a channel for commerce, using the example of Dutch city centers. In particular, we examine the extent to which the adoption of an information-only and online sales strategy is influenced by the size of the city (in terms of population) and the attractiveness of its central shopping location (the city center). We also explore the extent to which click-and-mortar (CAM) retailers in city centers actively promote their website in their physical outlets. The results indicate that the majority of Dutch city-center retailers have already established a Web presence. However, the likelihood of adoption largely varies among city centers. In general, city-center retailers in large cities are more likely to follow a CAM strategy than their counterparts in smaller cities. With regard to city-center attractiveness, shops in highly attractive localities are most inclined to adopt a CAM strategy. City-center retailers already actively promote their website in their retail outlets. This applies especially to stores in small cities with a moderately attractive core, and which belong to large corporate chains with an online sales strategy. Thus, the Internet has become increasingly embedded within the traditional retail environment of the Dutch city center. However, this diffusion process seems to vary from city to city, depending on the size of the city and the quality of its core.

Evolution in city centre retailing: the case of Utrecht (1974‐2003)

Purpose – Using a continuous dataset, the purpose of this study is to explore the evolution of retailing in the historical city centre of Utrecht between 1974 and 2003.Design/methodology/approach – Following an evolutionary framework entropy statistics and sector analysis are used to investigate the structural changes that have occurred over this period.Findings – The results indicate important changes over time. First, there is a decline of shops selling daily and space consuming goods. Second, the expansion of some sectors and the emergence of new sectors has compensated fully for the loss of these shops. The success of some of these sectors is related to the rise of recreational shopping. Despite increased competition of “out‐of‐town” retailing and other forms of retailing, Utrechts historical city centre has remained on top of the retail hierarchy in The Netherlands by transforming itself into an attractive location for recreational shopping.Practical implications – The results indicate that new poli...

The Impact of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) on Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) Start-ups: Empirical Evidence from the Dutch Randstad

Jacobs W., van Rietbergen T., Atzema O., van Grunsven L. and van Dongen F. The impact of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) start-ups: empirical evidence from the Dutch Randstad, Regional Studies. This paper focuses on the impact of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on the level of entrepreneurship in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in metropolitan regions. Large globalizing metropolitan regions or ‘world cities’ are generally considered prime office locations for MNEs and KIBS alike. Certain locations in these metropolitan regions or world cities provide multifarious benefits of being co-agglomerated. Yet the impact of local MNEs, whether domestic or foreign, on successful local entrepreneurship in related KIBS has hardly been conceptually or empirically addressed in the literature. This paper presents evidence from the Dutch Randstad based on a questionnaire given to 2,000 KIBS firms founded in 2001–08 and supported by interviews with major international KIBS. The main conclusion is that MNEs in KIBS firms spawn successful entrepreneurship in KIBS. Implications for regional development policy are also addressed.

The Geography of Internet Adoption by Independent Retailers in the Netherlands

So far, the literature on Internet adoption by retailers has paid little attention to spatial variables. Using data on approximately 12 000 independent retailers, we investigate the geographical diffusion of Internet strategies in the Netherlands. In particular, we examine to what extent Internet adoption differs among shopping centers, cities, and regions, while accounting for organizational variables. Results suggest that independent retailers at city and village centers are more likely to adopt information-only and online sales strategies than independents located at shopping centers at the bottom of the retail hierarchy. Furthermore, independent retailers in large(r) cities have a higher probability of adopting the Internet than their counterparts in small(er) cities. On the regional level, the likelihood of Internet adoption is higher for independent retailers in core regions than for independents in the periphery. Thus, geography seems to matter for Internet adoption by independent retailers.

The adoption of the internet by retailers: A new typology of strategies

THE rapid growth of consumer Internet access and online shopping and the potential benefits of the Internet for traditional retailers have led to a growing body of literature on the adoption of business-to-consumer (b2c) e-commerce by traditional retailers. Most of this literature primarily focuses on two stages of b2c e-commerce adoption, that is, the adoption of an information-only strategy and the exploitation of online sales. However, as some authors point out, within these main stages more Internet strategies can be discerned. For example, websites without online sales can differ in respect to the product information that is displayed, or the possibility of interaction via the website between a retailer and his (potential) customers. Online sales strategies may differ in the linkages that exist between the website and a retailer’s physical outlet(s) and the resemblance between both channels. Few exceptions aside, no empirical research has been conducted about b2c e-commerce adoption using a detailed classification of Internet strategies. The few empirical studies that exist are mainly descriptive case studies. Using insights from evolutionary economics, the goal of this paper is fourfold. First, building on existing Internet strategy typologies, we present a new continuum of twelve Internet strategies that retailers can adopt. Second, we make an attempt Weltevreden et al.