Industrial clusters and economic integration : theoretic concepts and an application to the European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg

"Economic integration typically goes along with disintegration of production through outsourcing and offshoring (Feenstra 1998). As horizontal and vertical links between firms become more and more pronounced, value chains within regions are increasingly organized by production and innovation clusters. On the basis of a literature overview, we argue that in a world of economic integration clusters can be expected to play a prominent role. Therefore clusters can also be seen as a key element in the European Metropolitan Region concept. Within such an economic space, localisation economies according to the 'Marshallian trinity' (knowledge spillovers, input sharing and labour market pooling (Rosenthal/Strange 2003)) can be realized. The paper builds on a comprehensive company survey for the core of the European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg that includes customer-supplier relationships and various forms of cooperation. As indicated by numerous empirical studies, the characteristics of clusters differ substantially. In order to overcome the fuzziness of the concept we suggest a bottom-up methodology of cluster identification using a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Given that many kinds of barriers to interregional and international trade are becoming less and less important and transport cost are falling, modern production clusters tend to have a higher geographical extension than traditional ones. We therefore raise the question of whether clustering is relevant for economic integration on the regional, national and supra-national level." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Stadtregion, regionales Cluster, Standort, Industrieregion, Regionalökonomie, zwischenbetriebliche Kooperation, Zulieferer, Wirtschaftsstruktur, regionales Netzwerk, Nürnberg, Oberfranken, Mittelfranken, Franken, Bayern

Knowledge sharing dynamics in international subcontracting arrangements : The case of Finnish high-tech SMEs

This paper focuses on an under-researched topic of knowledge sharing dynamics in international subcontracting relationships of SMEs. Based on in-depth qualitative analysis of three Finnish high-tech firms, our findings reveal that not only cost and performance expectations motivate SMEs for international subcontracting, but also the factors like lack of in-house alternatives, the volatility of workload, and need for speed in growth-related activities such as deliveries play an important role. We further found that the SMEs try to balance internal risks/uncertainty and external risks/uncertainty throughout international subcontracting. Our paper contributes to the extant literature by being one of the first studies to specifically highlight the range of knowledge sharing and knowledge protection mechanisms used in international subcontracting in SME-SME relationships in which partners come from different institutional settings and physical locations. Moreover, this paper is one of the few studies to specifically highlight the role of time in knowledge sharing from the buyer's point of view as well, specifically by emphasizing the need to balance the internal and external risks during the life-cycle of international subcontracting while balancing short-term challenges and long-term strategic development plans.© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Research on the Service Model of Higher Vocational E-Commercialized Curriculum Based on Value Network

In the environment of internet and e-commerce, the service of e-commercialized curriculum has gradually begun to develop. This paper introduces the theory of value network to support the service model of e-commercialized curriculum. Firstly, it analyzes the value network theory and its relationship with electronic commerce, and then discusses the existing problems and advantages of higher vocational e-commercialized curriculum. On the basis of these, it takes an analysis on the relationship between the members of value network, constructs the service model of higher vocational e-commercialized curriculum based on value network, and analyzes the value source, organizer, key factors and the integration process of the service model of higher vocational e-commercialized curriculum

International Vertical Alliances within the International Business Field : A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Coopetitive tensions across project phases: A paradox perspective

publishedVersionPaid open acces