Plant-based Bioeconomy in Central Germany - Mapping of Actors, Industries and Places
Wilfried Ehrenfeld, Frieder Kropfhäußer
Abstract
The challenges facing the 21st century, presented by a growing global population, range from food security to sustainable energy supplies to the diminishing availability of fossil raw materials. An attempt to solve these problems is made by using the concept of bioeconomy. Plants, in particular, possess an important function in this context - they can be used either as a source of food or, in the form of biomass, for industrial or energy purposes. Linking industrial and agricultural research and production, bioeconomy provides growth potential, in particular in rural areas.
The aim of this article is therefore to outline the status of plant-based bioeconomy
in three states of Central Germany - Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia - and to compare this to German plant-based bioeconomy. We take an in-depth look at the different sectors and outline the industries involved, the location and age of the enterprises as well as the distribution of important NACE codes. In conclusion, we highlight the significant number of new or small enterprises and the high research and innovation rate of Central Germany. We also stress the future potential of Central German plant-based bioeconomy as well as the importance of a more plant-focusedview of the technology sector.
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Determinants of Foreign Technological Activity in German Regions – A Count Model Analysis of Transnational Patents
Eva Dettmann, Iciar Dominguez Lacasa, Jutta Günther, Björn Jindra
Foresight-Russia,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
Most research on R&D internationalisation focuses on comparative analysis of location factors at the national level of analysis. Very little work, however, has taken place in this field for the sub-national regional location behavior of multi-national enterprises (MNE). The paper contributes to the existing research by providing evidence on the determinants of foreign technological activities at the sub-national level for Germany, which hosts the largest share of foreign R&D within the EU27 and features the highest cross-regional dispersion of patented research. Using a pooled count data model, we estimate the effect of various sources for externalities on the extent of foreign technological activity across regions. Particular attention is paid to the role of local knowledge spillovers, technological specialization and diversification. We differentiate foreign and domestic sources of specialisation and account for region and sector-specific influences. This is the first time that the ‘cross-border-ownership’ principle to measure R&D internationalisation is combined with regionalised patent information.
To verify our findings we develop hypotheses. In particular, we expect and find that foreign technological activity is attracted by technologically specialised sectors of regions. In contrast to current empirical work, this effect applies both to foreign as well as domestic sources of specialization, although effects on foreign specialization seem more significant. We expect and find the same for science-industry spillovers. We postulate a negative impact of domestic specialization on foreign technological activities and a strong positive effect from diversificationspillovers, by comparison with specialisation spillovers, but these hypotheses are rejected. We find that the direction of the specialisation effect depends on dominance in the position of domestic firms as well as on the balance of knowledge flows between them and foreign actors.
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Financial Constraints and Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-level Evidence
Claudia M. Buch, I. Kesternich, A. Lipponer, Monika Schnitzer
Review of World Economics,
No. 2,
2014
Abstract
Low productivity is an important barrier to the cross-border expansion of firms. But firms may also need external finance to shoulder the costs of entering foreign markets. We develop a model of multinational firms facing real and financial barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI), and we analyze their impact on the FDI decision. Theoretically, we show that financial constraints can affect highly productive firms more than firms with low productivity because the former are more likely to expand abroad. We provide empirical evidence based on a detailed dataset of German domestic and multinational firms which contains information on parent-level financial constraints as well as on the location the foreign affiliates. We find that financial factors constrain firms’ foreign investment decisions, an effect felt in particular by firms most likely to consider investing abroad. The locational information in our dataset allows exploiting cross-country differences in contract enforcement. Consistent with theory, we find that poor contract enforcement in the host country has a negative impact on FDI decisions.
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Parent Universities and the Location of Academic Startups
S. Heblich, Viktor Slavtchev
Small Business Economics,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
Academic startups are thought to locate in their parent university’s home region because geographic proximity to a university facilitates access to academic knowledge and resources. In this paper we analyze the importance of a different channel, namely social ties between academic entrepreneurs and university researchers, for the access to academic knowledge and resources, and therefore for the location of the startups. We employ unique data on academic startups from regions with more than one university and find that only the parent university influences academic entrepreneurs’ decisions to stay in the region while other universities in the same region play no role. Our findings suggest that geographic proximity to a university may not per se guarantee access to knowledge and resources; social contacts are additionally required. The importance of social ties implies that academic knowledge and resources are not necessarily local public goods. This holds implications for universities’ role in stimulating regional development.
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FDI Micro Database – Methodological Note – Survey 2013 in East Germany and Selected CEE Countries
Andrea Gauselmann, Björn Jindra, Philipp Marek
Einzelveröffentlichungen,
2013
Abstract
With the integration of post-communist countries into the European and global economy
after 1990, there was strong research interest into the role of multinational enterprises
(MNEs) for economic restructuring and technological catching-up. Most of the existing
empirical studies on locational determinants of FDI and host country effects did not take
account of East Germany. This might be for different reasons: Firstly, theoretical and
empirical difficulties derive from the fact that East Germany followed a distinct transition
pattern as it became a region subsumed in a larger and more mature economy. Secondly,
East Germany received private investment from foreign as well as West German firms. Only
the first can be considered as a foreign direct investment (FDI). Finally, there had long been
a lack of micro data to adequately analyse the activities of corresponding firms from a
production as well as technological perspective.
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MNEs and Regional R&D Co-operation: Evidence from Post-Transition Economies
Andrea Gauselmann
Grincoh Working Papers,
2013
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature by investigating the determinants of R&D co-operation between MNEs’ foreign subsidiaries and enterprises in the region of location, thereby leading to a better understanding which firm- and region-specific factors influence this co-operation behavior. Applying a logit model, this paper investigates which firm- and region-specific determinants influence technological cooperation between foreign subsidiaries and suppliers, customers, and research institutions in the region of location. Results suggest that especially the foreign subsidiary’s mandate in terms of R&D, its internal technological embeddedness, its technological capability but also the regional knowledge stock are positively associated with these co-operations. The analysis focuses on post-transition economies, using the example of five selected CEE countries and East Germany. We exploit a unique dataset - the IWH FDI Micro database - which holds information on 1,245 foreign subsidiaries in this region.
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Network Formation: R&D Cooperation Propensity and Timing Among German Laser Source Manufacturers
Muhamed Kudic, Andreas Pyka, Marco Sunder
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 9,
2013
Abstract
Empirical evidence on the evolution of innovation networks within high-tech industries is still scant. We investigate network formation processes by analyzing the timing of firms to enter R&D cooperations, using data on laser source manufacturers in Germany, 1990-2010. Network measures are constructed from a unique industry database that allows us to track both the formation and the termination of ties. Regression results reveal that a firm's knowledge endowment (and cooperation experience) shortens the duration to first (and consecutive) cooperation events. The previous occupation of strategic network positions is closely related to the establishment of further R&D cooperations at a swift pace. Geographic co-location produces mixed results in our analysis.
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Geoadditive Models for Regional Count Data: An Application to Industrial Location
Davide Castellani
ERSA conference papers,
2012
Abstract
We propose a geoadditive negative binomial model (Geo-NB-GAM) for regional count data which allows us to simultaneously address some important methodological issues, such as spatial clustering, nonlinearities and overdispersion. We apply this model to study location determinants of inward greenfield investments occurred over the 2003-2007 period in 249 European regions. The inclusion of a geoadditive component (a smooth spatial trend surface) permits us to control for spatial unobserved heterogeneity which induces spatial clustering. Allowing for nonlinearities reveals, in line with theoretical predictions, that the positive effect of agglomeration economies fades as the density of economic activities reaches some limit value. However, no matter how dense the economic activity becomes, our results suggest that congestion costs would never overcome positive agglomeration externalities.
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A Control Group Study of Incubators’ Impact to Promote Firm Survival
Michael Schwartz
Journal of Technology Transfer,
No. 3,
2013
Abstract
It is widely unclear as to whether start-up firms supported by publicly-initiated incubator initiatives have higher survival rates than comparable start-up firms that have not received support by such initiatives. This paper contributes to the underlying discussion by performing a large-scale matched-pairs analysis of the long-term survival of 371 incubator firms (after their graduation) from five German incubators and a control group of 371 comparable non-incubated firms. The analysis covers a 10-year time span. To account for the problem of selection bias, a non-parametric matching approach is applied to identify an appropriate control group. For neither of the five incubator locations, we find statistically significant higher survival probabilities for firms located in incubators compared to firms located outside those incubator organizations. For three incubator locations the analysis reveals statistically significant lower chances of survival for those start-ups receiving support by an incubator. The empirical results, therefore, raise some doubts regarding the impacts of incubation on long-term firm survival.
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Natural-resource or Market-seeking FDI in Russia? An Empirical Study of Locational Factors Affecting the Regional Distribution of FDI Entries
K. Gonchar, Philipp Marek
HSE Working Papers, Series: Economics, WP BRP 26/EC/2013,
2013
Abstract
This paper analyzes the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) across regions in Russia. Our analysis employs data on Russian firms with a foreign investor during the 2000-2009 period and links regional statistics in the conditional logit model. The main findings are threefold. First, we conclude that market-related factors and the availability of natural resources are important factors in attracting FDI. Second, existing agglomeration economies encourage foreign investors. Third, the findings imply that service-oriented FDI co-locates with extraction industries in resource-endowed regions.
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