Common Territory? : Comparing the IMP Approach with Economic Geography

The IMP research tradition has always been open to the cross-fertilisation of ideas with other social science disciplines that study similar phenomena. Recent years have seen a growing interest among IMP researchers in phenomena such as regional strategic networks, spatial clusters and innovation and new business development in networks. IMP papers published on these topics are increasingly citing conceptual frameworks and empirical findings from the field of economic geography. This paper discusses the development of IMP thought and the development of thought in economic geography (particularly evolutionary economic geography), and compares their approaches to the analysis of regional phenomena. The goal is to identify key ideas from economic geography that have been under-exploited in IMP research, in order to suggest original new approaches available to IMP researchers interested in these fields. A number of such ideas are explored: proximity as a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted concept; the distinction between, and relative importance of, learning activities arising automatically from being embedded in a community (local or regional buzz) and learning activities arising from positive investment in channels of communication (pipelines); the concept of relational capital developed by economic geographers; and, conceptualisations of externalities commonly used in the study of spatial clustersPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Probabilistic latent semantic analysis as a potential method for integrating spatial data concepts

In this paper we explore the use of Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) as a method for quantifying semantic differences between land cover classes. The results are promising, revealing ‘hidden’ or not easily discernible data concepts. PLSA provides a ‘bottom up’ approach to interoperability problems for users in the face of ‘top down’ solutions provided by formal ontologies. We note the potential for a meta-problem of how to interpret the concepts and the need for further research to reconcile the top-down and bottom-up approaches

Approach towards an operational tool to apply institutional analysis for the assessment of policy feasibility within SEAMLESS-IF

Environmental Economics and Policy,

A citation-based map of concepts in invasion biology

Invasion biology has been quickly expanding in the last decades so that it is now metaphorically flooded with publications, concepts, and hypotheses. Among experts, there is no clear consensus about the relationships between invasion concepts, and almost no one seems to have a good overview of the literature anymore. Similar observations can be made for other research fields. Science needs new navigation tools so that researchers within and outside of a research field as well as science journalists, students, teachers, practitioners, policy-makers, and others interested in the field can more easily understand its key ideas. Such navigation tools could, for example, be maps of the major concepts and hypotheses of a research field. Applying a bibliometric method, we created such maps for invasion biology. We analysed research papers of the last two decades citing at least two of 35 common invasion hypotheses. Co-citation analysis yields four distinct clusters of hypotheses. These clusters can describe the main directions in invasion biology and explain basic driving forces behind biological invasions. The method we outline here for invasion biology can be easily applied for other research fields

Assessing overall network structure in regional innovation policies: a case study of cluster policy in the West Midlands in the UK

Revisiting the theoretical roots of the key concepts of “embeddedness” and “networks” that underpin many recent regional innovation polices, this paper strives to achieve a more systematic understanding of the overall network structure of geographic agglomerations, which helps to form a more convincing model of regional development based on learning. This also helps to establish an analytical framework with indicators to assess the overall network structure in regional innovation policies. Employing the framework, the examination of cluster policy in the West Midlands highlights its weakness in addressing the overall cluster network structure and the contingent factors influencing the structure. The analysis suggests that there may be similar weaknesses in other regional innovation policies and the theories underpinning them as they share a common weakness in addressing the structural characteristics of overall networks

Culture in international business research: a bibliometric study in four top IB journals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a study on the articles published in the four top international business (IB) journals to examine how four cultural models and concepts – Hofstede’s (1980), Hall’s (1976), Trompenaars’s (1993) and Project GLOBE’s (House et al., 2004) – have been used in the extant published IB research. National cultures and cultural differences provide a crucial component of the context of IB research. Design/methodology – This is a bibliometric study on the articles published in four IB journals over the period from 1976 to 2010, examining a sample of 517 articles using citations and co-citation matrices. Findings – Examining this sample revealed interesting patterns of the connections across the studies. Hofstede’s (1980) and House et al.’s (2004) research on the cultural dimensions are the most cited and hold ties to a large variety of IB research. These findings point to a number of research avenues to deepen the understanding on how firms may handle different national cultures in the geographies they operate. Research limitations – Two main limitations are faced, one associated to the bibliometric method, citations and co-citations analyses and other to the delimitation of our sample to only four IB journals, albeit top-ranked. Originality/value – The paper focuses on the main cultural models used in IB research permitting to better understand how culture has been used in IB research, over an extended period.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS DURING PLANNING AND DESIGN: A FRAMEWORK OF PROCESSES FOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

With increased awareness of issues such as global resource shortages and climate change, sustainability efforts are becoming more common in the construction industry. While these efforts often consider economic and environmental factors, a truly sustainable construction project also needs to include such social considerations as its impact on the surrounding community and the safety, health, and education of the workforce. For the construction industry, social sustainability requires integrating processes for improving safety, health and well-being over the project life cycle. However, an empirical and comprehensive framework defining these social sustainability processes in construction projects has yet to be clearly delineated. To address this need, this study identifies these processes and categorizes them into a framework for integrating and evaluating social considerations in construction projects. These processes focus on the planning and design phases because they offer the greatest potential for influencing project performance. A concept mapping research method was applied to identify and categorize social sustainability processes based on the input of 25 experts from academia, industry and government. These experts contributed to process identification and then clustered and rated the processes based on similarity and importance, respectively. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to organize the experts\u27 input into six categories defining social sustainability in construction projects: Stakeholder Engagement, User Considerations, Team Formation, Management Considerations, Impact Assessment, and Place Context. The primary contribution of this research to the knowledge in the field is the expert-based social sustainability framework. Practitioners can benefit from the framework, which will enhance existing sustainability assessment methods and help address the challenge of developing truly sustainable projects. This framework also provides educators with a tool to teach students about social sustainability for construction projects. While this research advances understanding of social sustainability for construction projects, the framework was not validated for every type of construction project and construction project stakeholder. Given the differences between construction projects and between stakeholder perspectives, future research to validate the framework with other expert groups would be useful. In addition, future research suggested by this project could include the development of metrics based on the processes included in the framework. Beyond the framework itself, a secondary contribution to the field is the method for applying the concept mapping research method in the construction industry