{"title":"Study and work paving the way for Moroccan migrants: the entrepreneurial path to transnational and domestic business activities","authors":"Juan Francisco Alvarado Valenzuela, G. Solano","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2021-0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2021-0021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article we look at the various paths taken by transnational and domestic entrepreneurs based on their education and work experience. These act as catalysts for skills that allow migrant entrepreneurs to better position themselves in different markets. Differences in migrant entrepreneurs allow us to better understand the strategies employed and the consequences for society and the economy at both domestic and transnational levels. Earlier research has extensively analysed individual characteristics of migrant entrepreneurs and, to a much lesser extent, the geographical nature of their business activities. This article addresses this gap by looking at the geographical orientation of migrant entrepreneurs’ businesses. The research question is as follows: In what ways are transnational or domestic activities of Moroccan migrant entrepreneurs in the Netherlands and Italy influenced by skills acquired in earlier experiences? We provide empirical evidence on the different paths leading to domestic and transnational activities using a micro-level perspective of the experiences collected in the narratives of first-generation Moroccan migrant entrepreneurs who have migrated to Milan or Amsterdam (N=70). Four different paths combining these two life experiences emerged from the interviews: #1 Job-based, #2 Education-driven, #3 Job-education merger, and #4 By chance (neither education nor work experience). The most relevant paths for migrant entrepreneurs seem to be the first (#1) and third (#3) paths. Furthermore, our findings show that transnationally oriented entrepreneurs have an extended business-oriented education and rely on skills learned, in contrast to domestically oriented entrepreneurs who become entrepreneurs ‘by chance’.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"19 1","pages":"172 - 184"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78564744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resilience and specialization – How German regions weathered the Great Recession","authors":"Christian Hundt, Lennart Grün","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2021-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2021-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper takes an explorative approach for analyzing the economic development of German Spatial Planning Regions during and after the Great Recession covering the period from 2007 to 2017. Specifically, we are interested in the relation between the short- and the mid-term resilience of regions and in the role of the underlying economic structure in this regard. For this purpose, we categorize regions by their GDP per capita growth in the resistance and recovery phase and then characterize the resulting region types by their average structural characteristics and track their performance through the renewal and reorientation phase. Our analysis reveals that, in general, larger shares of manufacturing, higher degrees of export orientation and specialization, and lower shares of public sector services are associated with weaker resilience and stronger recovery capacity. In addition, we observe a catch-up effect of regions with at least either an above-average resistance or recovery compared to regions with both weak resistance and slow recovery. However, we do not find a substantial reorientation effect because, in the case of Germany, the advantages of regional economic specialization still outweigh its potential disadvantages.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"30 1","pages":"96 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85256541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Urban-economic geographies beyond production: Nairobi’s sociotechnical system and the challenge of generative urbanization","authors":"James T. Murphy","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2022-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2022-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Urban-regional economies are developing in highly variegated, uneven ways globally. In economic geography, studies of urban-regional development emphasize the prospects for innovative, globally-competitive industrial sectors to emerge and enhance a city-region’s exchange value in global markets. This focus reflects a productivist bias that may fail to address issues related to the use-value of, or living conditions associated with urban transitions. Such concerns are particularly significant in the Global South where urbanization has often not led to socioeconomic transformations that benefit the majority of urban residents. To examine the relationships between a city’s exchange and use value, this paper argues for a sociotechnical systems approach that conceptualizes cities as constituted by interdependent or coupled regimes related to production, consumption, and infrastructure that stabilize urban-regional economies and determine development pathways. The framework is deployed empirically to examine the case of Nairobi, Kenya – a rapidly growing urban-regional economy characterized by high rates of inward foreign direct investment, principally in speculative real estate ventures in the consumption regime. Domestic manufacturing industries (the production regime) are stagnating, struggling to compete against imports, and failing to generate widespread formal employment and raise tax revenues for the infrastructure regime. The net result is a city characterized by fragmented or splintered regimes that create highly uneven, exclusionary development outcomes. These dynamics and findings are analyzed in relation to a similar study of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in order to demonstrate the comparative potential of this conceptual approach. The paper concludes with a call for economic geographers to better account for the use-value of urban-regional economies such that development concerns beyond production become more central to our analyses.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"23 1","pages":"18 - 35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84390407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Agency, sentiment, and risk and uncertainty: fears of job loss in 8 European countries","authors":"G. Clark","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2021-0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2021-0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract How people assess their prospects and act accordingly is anchored in time and space. But context is only half the story. Human beings share predispositions in favour of the here and now, discounting the future, and risk aversion. This paper provides a framework for integrating cognition with context in economic geography focusing upon agency, resources, and risk and uncertainty in European labour markets. In doing so, it seeks to avoid essentialising the individual while ensuring that the resulting framework does not leave individuals as cyphers of time and place. The framework is illustrated by reference to individual’s assessments of the consequences of technological change for their employment prospects in a multicountry European setting. Implications are drawn for a behavioural economic geography that is policy relevant.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"60 1","pages":"3 - 17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91304797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Der Zusammenhang zwischen sozialen Ungleichheiten und Covid-19 Fallzahlen auf Stadtteilebene – Eine Fallstudie für 46 Stadtteile der Stadt Duisburg","authors":"Max-Leon Straßburger, L. Mewes","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2021-0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2021-0030","url":null,"abstract":"Zusammenfassung Während der laufenden SARS-CoV-2-Pandemie hat die Forschung gezeigt, dass sozio-ökonomische Ungleichheiten eine entscheidende Rolle beim Verständnis der Ausbreitung des Virus spielen. Menschen mit einem niedrigeren sozio-ökonomischen Status haben eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit, sich mit COVID-19 zu infizieren und an dem Virus zu sterben. Da sozio-ökonomische Ungleichheiten eine starke räumliche Dimension haben, z. B. aufgrund zunehmender Ungleichheiten innerhalb von Städten, könnte dieses Wissen zur Erklärung und zur Vorhersage der geographischen Ausbreitung des Virus beitragen. Empirische Belege auf feiner geographischer Ebene innerhalb von Städten sind jedoch äußerst rar. Wir adressieren diese Forschungslücke und untersuchen die Beziehung zwischen SARS-CoV-2-Fällen pro 100.000 Einwohner und dem sozio-ökonomischen Status auf der Grundlage detaillierter Daten auf Stadtbezirksebene in Duisburg, Deutschland, welche vom Gesundheitsamt der Stadt Duisburg zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, sowie Daten des KECK-Atlasses. Unsere Regressionsergebnisse deuten stark auf einen negativen Zusammenhang zwischen sozio-ökonomischem Status und Morbiditätsraten für die zweite Welle der aktuellen Pandemie in Duisburg hin. Unsere Ergebnisse verbessern das Verständnis der geographischen Ausbreitung von SARS-CoV-2 in Städten und liefern politischen Entscheidungsträgern detaillierte Informationen darüber, wie geographisch sensible Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der Pandemie konzipiert werden können, um sozio-ökonomisch benachteiligte Menschen in unserer Gesellschaft besser zu schützen.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"92 1","pages":"111 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83797110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Zum Stand der geographischen Handelsforschung: Handelsimmobilien und Handelstätigkeit – Ökonomisch-funktionaler Zusammenhang im Kontext der geographischen Handelsforschung","authors":"K. Klein","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2021-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2021-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Zusammenfassung Im Mittelpunkt steht der funktionale und ökonomisch begründete Zusammenhang zwischen der stationären Handelstätigkeit und der benötigten Handelsfläche. Die Basis für diese Untersuchung liefern die Theorie des Kapitalkreislaufs sowie ein Marktmodell für Handelsimmobilien. Damit gelingt der Nachweis der wechselseitigen Beeinflussung von Handelsentwicklung und Investitionstätigkeit. Der Online-Wettbewerb verändert die Bedeutung der Handelsfläche für die Handelstätigkeit und als Investitionsgut. Der vorgeschlagene interdisziplinäre Ansatz ergänzt die theoretischen Grundlagen der geographischen Handelsforschung und trägt zum Verständnis der flexibler werdenden Raumstrukturen im stationären Handel bei.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"1 1","pages":"211 - 227"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89883107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hidden Champions and their integration in rural regional innovation systems: Insights from Germany","authors":"Carsten Rietmann","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2021-0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2021-0024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article studies the integration of Hidden Champions – little-known highly innovative global market leaders – in rural regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany. These firms are analyzed in relation to their integration into a RIS framework, which differentiates two subsystems: knowledge generation and diffusion, and knowledge application and exploitation. The relevance of firm-internal and firm-external regional influencing factors on rural RIS integration is examined. The article proposes that Hidden Champions are weakly integrated in RIS due to their international sales focus and high technological specialization. To test this premise, 57 expert interviews with Hidden Champions and regional actors were conducted. It was found that key influences for RIS integration of this firm type are ownership structure, firm size, organizational status, location economies, and urbanization economies. Family businesses are on average more integrated than other firm types, but vary significantly in their integration.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84474831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hidden Champions as a Determinant of Regional Development: An Analysis of German Districts","authors":"L. Benz, J. Block, Matthias S. Johann","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2020-0043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2020-0043","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"0 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85531437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mießner, M.; Naumann, M. (Hrsg.): Kritische Geographien ländlicher Enwicklung. Globale Transformationen und lokale Herausforderungen. (= Raumproduktionen: Theorie und gesellschaftliche Praxis, Band 33). Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot 2019. 296 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-89691-277-0. 33 Euro.","authors":"Ingo Mose","doi":"10.1515/zfw-2020-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2020-0005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29690,"journal":{"name":"ZFW-Advances in Economic Geography","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73013623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}