NETSCAPE - Europe and the Evolving World City Network

This paper focuses on the interdependencies between firms and spatial networks (nodes and linkages) at different European spatial scales. The paper is structured into two parts: (1) Conceptualization; (2) Empirical Analysis. Part (1) consists of three chapters conceptualizing various scales of city-firm networks. The first concerns the macro scale, discussing the development of specific networks within the globalization process. The second analyses the mezzo level of European networks and their national to supranational transformation. On the micro level Rotterdam's internal and external network is conceptualized. Part (2) empirically reveals the European city-firm network at mezzo and micro scales, based on datasets including the top 100 EU multinationals, their affilates/subsidiaries and the city locations of all these firms. Chapter one analyses the mezzo scale, showing various hierarchies of city-firm interdependencies, for the sectors of manufacturing, trade, information, public services and basic materials. The second chapter analyses the relative position of Rotterdam within this interscalar network, by specifically investigating its internal and external city-firm networks. From this Rotterdam's existing strengths and weakenesses, and possible future implications are determined.

NETSCAPE - Europe and the Evolving World City Network

This paper focuses on the interdependencies between firms and spatial networks (nodes and linkages) at different European spatial scales. The paper is structured into two parts: (1) Conceptualization; (2) Empirical Analysis. Part (1) consists of three chapters conceptualizing various scales of city-firm networks. The first concerns the macro scale, discussing the development of specific networks within the globalization process. The second analyses the mezzo level of European networks and their national to supranational transformation. On the micro level Rotterdam's internal and external network is conceptualized. Part (2) empirically reveals the European city-firm network at mezzo and micro scales, based on datasets including the top 100 EU multinationals, their affilates/subsidiaries and the city locations of all these firms. Chapter one analyses the mezzo scale, showing various hierarchies of city-firm interdependencies, for the sectors of manufacturing, trade, information, public services and basic materials. The second chapter analyses the relative position of Rotterdam within this interscalar network, by specifically investigating its internal and external city-firm networks. From this Rotterdam's existing strengths and weakenesses, and possible future implications are determined

The Financial Centres of Shanghai and Hong Kong: Competition or Complementarity?

The contemporary rise of China in the new geo-economy is increasingly pressurising the spatial distribution of financial activity in mainland China and Hong Kong. With the re-emergence of Shanghai, many people foresee the furture demise of Hong Kong as the most important financial centre for the China mainland. This paper shows that conviction seems rather premature. Bases on the concepts of comparative advantage and market segmentation, the extent to which Shanghai and Hong Kong can be considered complementary financial centres is assessed. By using the listings of mainland China based companies on the stock exchange of each financial centre, it is shown that both cities do not only appear to have distinct hinterlands but they also differ strongly in terms of sectoral specialisation

Linking scales and urban network development

Comparative studies of urbanisation can be characterized by their emphasis on the quantitative and visual aspects of urban growth, which is amongst other things reflected in the analysis of spatial patterns and rates of urban population growth. The visual aspects relate both to the spatial realisation of the demand for urban land use and its functional variation. This emphasis can be understood from the perspective of the ongoing process of urban industrial growth in the industrialised countries during the 19th and most of the 20th century. Most of the concept and models we use have been developed during this period of urban transition and relate to this experience. However, in the last quarter of the 20th century this process came to an end as the urbanisation process in its present form was completed. This leads to the following questions. First, to what extent are the concepts and models derived throughout this period still valid? Second, if this is not the case, to what extent do they need adjustment and third, what kind of new approaches are required? In this paper the focus will be cities as part of an urban system and will deal with two issues, viz. the relation between spatial scales, i.e. vertical linkages and the relation between cities, especially focussed on their horizontal linkages or network characteristics. These two issues will be discussed against the background of the completion of three long-term developments: (1) the completed first demographic transition, (2) the completed process of industrialisation and (3) the completion of three infrastructural revolutions. This analysis will indicate the direction in which the environment has changed, the consequences of this change for the conceptualisation of the process of urbanisation and for the characteristics of the process it self. The consequences of these changes will be discussed using empirical examples from the Netherlands and other parts of Europe both for models of internal urban structure and for the city system at large. The classical unity between territory, economic and social functions is broken up and has lead to a decoupling of functions both in a spatial and in a functional sense. The latter has resulted in a process of spatial rebundling of activities. It will be argued that new rationalities are needed to understand the contemporary realisation of the spatial outcome of the demand for space use. In addition to this, it has also been argued that new and different types of uncertainties emerge. The latter are related to the increased importance of micro processes in the demand for space use. This in turn has consequences for spatial policy, as it will lead to considerable mismatches between national planning goals and actual realisations. It is suggested that a process approach is needed to deal with these uncertainties

The Geography of Equity Listing and Financial Centre Competition in Mainland China and Hong Kong

This study examines the changing competitiveness of financial centres in mainland China and Hong Kong based on the geography of equity listing of mainland Chinese firms. Pre-listing firm characteristics are used to explore firms’ motives for listing on a particular exchange and whether these motives have changed over time. The results show that Hong Kong’s prominence as an international financial centre is attracting the largest and, recently, also the best performing mainland Chinese state-owned enterprises to go public. Less differentiation exists between the competitiveness of Shanghai and Shenzhen, although the renewed strategy of the Shenzhen stock exchange to attract smaller firms appears to be successful

When Clusters become Networks

Policy makers spend large amounts of public resources on the foundation of science parks and other forms of geographically clustered business activities, in order to stimulate regional innovation. Underlying the relation between clusters and innovation is the assumption that co-located firms engaged in innovative activities benefit from knowledge that diffuses locally. In order to access this knowledge, firms are often required to form more- or less formal relations with co-located firms. Empirical evidence shows however that besides some success cases like Silicon Valley and the Emilia- Romagna region where firms collaborate intensively, many regional clusters are mere co-locations of firms. To enhance our understanding of why some clusters become networks of strategic collaboration and others don’t, we study link formation within European biopharmaceutical clusters. More specifically we look at the effect of cluster characteristics such as number of start-up firms, established firms or academic institutions, or the nature of the collaborations on the probability of local link formation

A Treatise on the Geographical Scale of Agglomeration Externalities and the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem

The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) refers to the sensitivity of statistical research results to the initial spatial nomenclature used. Despite a substantial literature in the related field of geography on the potential influence of the MAUP, the urban economic modeling tradition has not paid much attention to this issue. In this article, we test to what extent the MAUP moderates the effect of agglomeration externalities on areal sectoral employment growth by varying the initial geographical scale of analysis. Using spatial cross-regressive modeling in which we account for spatial spillover effects of agglomeration externalities, we find different effects of agglomeration forces across geographical scales. As the MAUP is a theoretical as well as a methodological problem, research should not only work with proper statistical specifications of spatial agglomeration models incorporating different geographical scales, but also relate this more explicitly to hypotheses concerning the geographical scale at which agglomeration externalities operate

Revealed Competition for Greenfield Investments between European Regions

In the modern economy, cities are assumed to be in fierce competition over attracting foreign investments in leading sectors of the world economy. Despite the rich theoretical discourse on these 'wars', it remains unclear which territories are competing with each other over which types of investments Combining insights from international economics, international business, and urban systems literature, we develop an indicator to measure revealed competition between territories for investments based on the overlap of investment portfolios of regions. Taking competition for greenfield investments between European regions as a test subject, we identify competitive market segments, derive the competitive threat a region faces from other regions, the competitive threat regions pose to other regions, and the most important market segments in which regions compete. We show that European regions with similar locational endowments pose a fiercer competitive thre at to one another. In addition, regions that are sufficiently large and distinctive, face the smallest average competitive threat from all other regions