Probing the position of the Jakarta metropolitan area in global inter-urban networks through the lens of manufacturing firms

This paper presents an analysis of the position of the Jakarta metropolitan area (JMA) in global inter-urban networks. Our starting point is our aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the JMA’s connectivity in world city networks (WCNs). To this end, we steer clear of top-down approaches, which tend to analyze cities in singular taxonomies of global prominence, and instead propose a framework that is attuned to the JMA’s contexts to provide an alternative and complementary reading of how the JMA has been inserted into the WCN. To this end, by drawing on the interlocking network model, which helps to proxy inter-urban networks based on the multi-locational operations of manufacturing firms, we examine the JMA’s network positionality on the global and national scales. The results provide evidence of the JMA’s global inter-city relations being strongly geared toward East Asian cities. In addition, the results suggest that the JMA cannot be detached from its national geography, as evidenced by its strong connections with cities located on the island of Java

Appropriate Economic Space for Transnational Infrastructural Projects: Gateways, Multimodal Corridors, and Special Economic Zones

This study addresses three questions that arise in Asia when formulating, financing, implementing, and maintaining transnational linkages versus purely domestic connections. Firstly, how is optimal economic space to be defined as a useful starting point? Secondly, how can relevant criteria be developed to define the emerging spatial economy and identify efficient transnational transport networks? Thirdly, what are the main investment opportunities in physical infrastructure that would result in more efficient and effective regional cooperation and integration (making special reference to the potential role of cross-border special economic zones (SEZs) or their equivalents)?asia transnational infrastructure; asia regional cooperation

Brands and Branding: An Analysis of the Evolutionary Development of Baijiu Industry Clusters in China

Research into industry clusters and brands and branding has emerged and developed in the Western world for decades. In China, the Reform and Opening up policy adopted since the late 1970s, has resulted in impressive economic growth around economic clusters, including some manufacturing processing industries, and some industries related to high-technology, and traditional industries (i.e. agricultural and Baijiu products). This thesis aims to contribute to the academic and political understanding of these issues through exploring the emergence, agglomeration and development of Chinese alcoholic beverage/Baijiu industry clusters. Inspired by theories of industry clusters, and brands and branding, this thesis proposes to find out and understand the development of Chinese industry clusters formations and their branding strategies, especially in a traditional industry sector. These ideas are described and analysed through a qualitative-oriented fieldwork investigation in seven industry clusters within three Chinese prefecture-level cities, namely, Luzhou, Yibin and Zunyi.From a theoretical perspective, industry clusters and brands and branding theories/strategies are not separate from, but are associated with, each other. Brands and branding strategies are not only marketing concepts but also have diverse meanings from economic, social, ecological, political and cultural perspectives. With the characteristics of geographical entanglements (Pike, 2009b), dynamic network frames and creative activity, the brands and branding strategies are geographically linked to multi-layer industry clusters. This makes it possible to identify industry clusters from brands and branding insights, especially in this global world. The concepts of brands and branding, and industry clusters, and the relationship between them form one part of the thesis’s contributions. In addition, evolutionary economic geography theory is useful to explore industry clusters, which has been utilised to explain the brands and branding of Chinese Baijiu regional agglomeration and industry clusters.From an empirical perspective, the Chinese Baijiu industry’s clusters, brands and branding strategies can be analysed from four aspects, namely, price and some intangible brand value factors; ecological and environmental elements; the Baijiu organisational structure of the production, circulation, and consumption; and the policies and regulations of regional agglomerations and industry clusters. Price is a tangible brand value factor which differentiates Chinese Baijiu commodity with multi-level prices. Enterprise structures and scales help form the Baijiu industry cluster formations as well; natural-related elements of environment/ecology include water, grains, human activities and cultural and historical backgrounds, which explain the meanings of origins, and influence the regional agglomerations of Chinese Baijiu; societal consumption and investment extend industrial chains of Chinese Baijiu and drive its agglomeration and dispersion; multi-layer governmental policies and regulations force and impede the emergence and development of Chinese Baijiu industry clusters. Regional agglomerations provide spatial backgrounds for Chinese Baijiu industry clusters. Drawing upon this, seven Chinese Baijiu industry clusters are identified and their evolutionary developments are explored: Chinese Baijiu Golden Triangle Baijiu Industry Development Zone, Sichuan Luzhou Baijiu Industry Park, Guojiao 1573 Square, Renhuai Economic Development Zones (including three functional parks: National Baijiu Industrial Park, Renhuai Famous Baijiu Industrial Park, and Tanchang Modern Service Park), Wuliangye Group, Jiudu Yibin · Wuliangye Culture Features Street and Qionglai Basic Baijiu Production Zone. Driven by the branding strategies of both enterprises and government policy guidelines, these seven Chinese Baijiu industry clusters show a development characteristic of enterprises/products branding–industry cluster branding–place/province branding.Furthermore, more detailed brand identification, industry clusters and global value chains, and globalisation and branding strategies all provide future research possibilities for Chinese Baijiu industry. This thesis still has its limitations, which may need more quantitative methods to measure and examine the formation and development of Chinese Baijiu industry. Basically, this thesis also offers potential research connecting to other Chinese agricultural industries, manufacturing industries and tourism industries

Factors Influencing Cities' Publishing Efficiency

Recently, a vast number of scientific publications have been produced in cities in emerging countries. It has long been observed that the publication output of Beijing has exceeded that of any other city in the world, including such leading centres of science as Boston, New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo. Researchers have suggested that, instead of focusing on cities' total publication output, the quality of the output in terms of the number of highly cited papers should be examined. However, in the period from 2014 to 2016, Beijing produced as many highly cited papers as Boston, London, or New York. In this paper, I propose another method to measure cities' publishing performance; I focus on cities' publishing efficiency (i.e., the ratio of highly cited articles to all articles produced in that city). First, I rank 554 cities based on their publishing efficiency, then I reveal some general factors influencing cities' publishing efficiency. The general factors examined in this paper are as follows: the linguistic environment, cities' economic development level, the location of excellent organisations, cities' international collaboration patterns, and the productivity of scientific disciplines

MULTISCALAR CLUSTERS AND NETWORKS AS THE FOUNDATIONS OF INNOVATION DYNAMICS IN THE BIOPHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

Based on the case of the biopharmaceutical industry, the aim of this paper is to challenge the core conviction now widespread within the “spatial clustering theory”, which devotes a key (if not exclusive) role to geographical proximity in explaining clustering dynamics of innovation activities within spe-cific territories. Our argument is threefold. First, mere geographical proximity is not enough; in many cases, cognitive, organizational and strategic forms of proximity are often at least as crucial as the topological closeness among inno-vation actors. Second, our idea is that clusters are fundamentally the territoria-lized outcome of combinations of inter-organizational and social networks among actors pursuing common goals, each of these actors having a specific territorial and social embedding that allows him or her (or not) to operate and interact at different spatial scales. These networks are socially and territorially embedded, but they can operate at various spatial scales. Third, sector-driven dynamics – as is in the case of biopharmaceuticals – may structurally frame the way the actors interact and collaborate in R&D projects and innovation proce-sses. Indeed, the dynamics underlying the emergence, structuring and evolution of biopharmaceutical clusters are both multi-actor and multiscalar. In this perspective, clusters and networks appear to be intertwined phenomena, con-substantial one to each other, and co-evolving organizational modes of biop-harmaceutical innovation.BIOCLUSTERS, FORMS OF PROXIMITY, INNOVATION NETWORKS, SPATIAL SCALES

Agglomeration, related variety and vertical integration

Several recent studies investigate the relation between geographic concentration of production and vertical integration, based on the hypothesis that spatial agglomeration of firms in the same industry facilitates input procurement thereby reducing the degree of vertical integration. The present paper contributes to this debate by also considering the effects of industry variety at the local level. Specifically, we consider two forms of variety: unrelated variety and vertically related variety. The latter index is constructed using information drawn from input-output tables and captures the opportunities for outsourcing within the local system. We consider inter-industry vertical integration by taking account of the ownership of activities with input-output linkages. Using a dataset of 24,663 Italian business groups in 2001, we estimate Tobit models to investigate the influence of vertically related variety and other agglomeration forces on the degree of vertical integration of groups. Our evidence confirms that vertical integration is influenced by industry specialization at the local level. We also find that the higher the vertically related variety, the lower the need for firms to integrate activities since they have more opportunities to acquire intermediate goods and services within the local system.vertical integration, agglomeration, related-variety, business group

Party Formation and Coalitional Bargaining in a Model of Proportional Representation

We study a game theoretic model of a parliamentary democracy under proportional representation where `citizen candidates' form parties, voting occurs and governments are formed. We study the coalition governments that emerge as functions of the parties' seat shares, the size of the rents from holding office and their ideologies. We show that governments may be minimal winning, minority or surplus. Moreover, coalitions may be `disconnected'. We then look at how the coalition formation game affects the incentives for party formation. Our model explains the diverse electoral outcomes seen under proportional representation and integrates models of political entry with models of coalitional bargaining.Proportional representation, Party formation, Coalitions