Hidden Champions as a Determinant of Regional Development: An Analysis of German Districts

IF 2.4 Q2 ECONOMICS

ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography Pub Date : 2021-09-08 DOI:10.1515/zfw-2020-0043

L. Benz, J. Block, Matthias S. Johann

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

Abstract Hidden Champions (HCs) are defined as market leaders in niche markets. They represent the success of the German Mittelstand like no other group of firms. However, little is known on how HCs contribute to regional development. Given their export strength, regional embeddedness, and strong vertical integration we expect HCs to have a profound effect on regional development. Using a German dataset of 1,645 HCs located in 401 German districts, we analyze the effect of HCs on a variety of regional development dimensions. Our results show that HCs are not equally distributed across regions and influence regional development. Regions with a higher number of HCs show strong regional economic performance in terms of median income. Moreover, HC intensity affects regional unemployment and trainee rates as well as regional innovation in terms of patents. Surprisingly, we did not find an effect of regional HC intensity on regional R&D levels and GDP. We can further conclude that the effect of HCs is not limited to the particular region in which they are located but that sizable spillover effects exist. Besides its contribution to the regional development literature, our study adds to a better understanding of the HC-phenomenon. Implications for regional policy makers are discussed.

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隐性冠军作为区域发展的决定因素:对德国地区的分析

摘要隐性冠军(HCs)是指利基市场中的市场领导者。他们代表了德国中小企业的成功，这是其他任何企业集团都无法比拟的。然而，人们对高负担国家如何促进区域发展知之甚少。鉴于其出口实力、区域嵌入性和强大的垂直一体化，我们预计高收入国家将对区域发展产生深远影响。利用德国401个地区的1645个HCs数据集，我们分析了HCs对各种区域发展维度的影响。研究结果表明，高负担国家在区域间分布不均，影响区域发展。高收入国家数量较多的地区在收入中位数方面表现出强劲的区域经济表现。此外，在专利方面，HC强度影响区域失业率和培训生率以及区域创新。令人惊讶的是，我们没有发现区域HC强度对区域研发水平和GDP的影响。我们可以进一步得出结论，hc的影响并不局限于它们所在的特定地区，而是存在相当大的溢出效应。除了对区域发展文献的贡献外，我们的研究还有助于更好地理解hc现象。讨论了对区域决策者的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量