Rethinking Territorial Innovation: World Market Leaders outside of Agglomerations

Lukas Vonnahme, Thilo Lang (SFB 1199 & IfL)

Publication Date

May 2017

Publisher

SFB 1199

Language

English

Type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Working paper series des SFB 1199 an der Universität Leipzig Nr. 6

Additional Information

Abstract

This paper presents the theoretical framework and research design to study the innovation patterns of
world market leaders (WML)1 located in geographically remote regions of Germany. We conceptualize WML as firms that maintain particularly strong translocal relationships with other actors. These firms must be capable not only of marketing their products globally, but also of continuously generating knowledge about the respective technological fields as well as about users, competitors and potential collaboration partners in order to sustain their competitive advantage and market leadership.
Partially contradictory to assumptions in literature on the geography of innovation, these firms do not
seem to be primarily reliant on local forms of knowledge creation, and instead maintain translocal and global collaborations to create knowledge for their innovation processes. The aim of this project is thus to understand firm-level conditions and procedures that facilitate and maintain relationships across distance,
to create knowledge for innovation processes. In so doing, this project relates to the overarching research
interests of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1199): “Processes of Spatialization under the Global
Condition”. Through the elaboration of spatial varieties of collaboration and innovation processes, the project will help to better understand processes of spatialization, highlighting the relation of proximity and distance, as well as helping to identify spatial formats relevant to economic actors highly networked in a globalized economy. Regarding the research design, we propose a standardized survey to investigate spatial aspects of innovation patterns of firms at focus as a first step. This survey will be enlarged by a random sample of WML located in agglomerations, to expose potential differences of the implementation of innovative activities, as dependent on the location. In a second step, qualitative interviews with representatives of selected firms will shed light on the central questions of the project. We want to understand which conditions and procedure enable WML located outside of agglomerations to engage in and utilize translocal knowledge creation processes. The influence of local relationships and factors that bind firms to their locations are questioned and put in relation to translocal collaborations.

Biographical Note

Lukas Vonnahme (SFB 1199 & Leibniz- Institut für Länderkunde)

Having studied Human Geography in Marburg, Lund and Frankfurt from 2008 to 2014, Vonnahme joined the Leibniz-Institute for Regional Geography Leipzig in 2014. After he worked for bwcon GmbH, a regional economic development agency in Stuttgart in 2015, Vonnahme obtained his current position as a Researcher and PhD Candidate within the project “Peripheral but Global: World Market Leaders outside of Agglomerations”, which is part of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1199: “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition”. His research interests include regional economic development, processes of knowledge creation in space, and innovation management.

Thilo Lang (SFB 1199 & Leibniz- Institut für Länderkunde)

Having studied spatial and environmental planning in Kaiserslauten and urban planning in Hamburg, Thilo Lang gained his PhD in Potsdam and Durham. As the head of a department at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, his research interests focus on the production of space and transnational urban and regional development in the context of current processes of socio-spatial polarization and rising disparities across Europe. Further long-term research interests include urban and regional change, shrinking cities and regeneration, as well as peripheralization as a multilevel process. One current focus is on innovation outside of conurbations and alternative local and social economies.