Entrepreneurship and ageing: Exploring an economic geography perspective : CRED Research Paper No. 22

This paper is forthcoming as a chapter in the «Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship and Aging» edited by Charlie Karlsson, Mikaela Backman and Orsa Kekezi (to be published in July 2019 with Edward Elgar Publishing Inc.).The traditional understanding of entrepreneurship is biased towards certain population groups and specific locations. Yet the literature points to a much more diverse perspective on entrepreneurship and regional development. In this paper, we argue that regional characteristics such as the extent to which a region faces demographic change (population growth or decline, population ageing, emigration of youth, etc.) may exert a strong influence both on the individual propensity to start a business and the aggregate numbers of entrepreneurial activities. In addition, demographic change also influences the types of businesses or business models found in different regional contexts. With this idea in mind, we argue that the opportunities and challenges that are associated with old age entrepreneurship depend strongly on the regional context. We place old age entrepreneurship into a regional context and illustrate the ways in which opportunities and constraints arise from such a context and, in particular, from demographic change occurring in different regional types.publishedVersio

Social innovations in healthcare provision: an analysis of knowledge types and their spatial context

Peripheral regions face the challenge of ensuring adequate healthcare provision. As a solution to such challenges, social innovations are introduced. In relevant literature, it is recognized that the exchange of knowledge among diverse actors is a defining aspect of social innovations and that it is a crucial component of their success in peripheral areas. However, little is known about the characteristics and the spatial context of knowledge in social innovations. We address this research gap by analyzing micro-level knowledge dynamics in four social innovations in the healthcare sector of a Swiss mountain region. We distinguish three knowledge types according to the knowledge base approach: synthetic (practical and tacit), analytical (scientific and codified) and symbolic (semiotic and tacit). From innovation biographies and semi-structured interviews, we find that synthetic knowledge is the type used most throughout the whole social innovation process and that it is often combined with the other two knowledge types. Local actors and extra-local actors who are locally embedded contribute the most knowledge. The findings indicate that the social innovation actors require a considerable number of craft and practical skills to make use of their own analytical or symbolic knowledge, as well as to link these three knowledge types from different actors and spatial contexts. It seems that, in a strongly regulated sector like healthcare that primarily depends on (analytical) expert knowledge, analytical knowledge from extra-local inputs is not sufficient. Rather, highly knowledgeable, locally embedded actors are needed to combine synthetic knowledge with other knowledge types. Our findings suggest that successful social innovations combine locally and extra locally acquired synthetic knowledge with analytical and symbolic knowledge to solve peripheral healthcare challenges and to contribute to regional wellbeing

Transformative enterprises: Characteristics and a definition

This paper contributes to an emerging discussion about transformative enterprises, which are increasingly seen as change agents in sustainability transformations. Some schol-ars have hitherto described them as pioneering enterprises that strive for fundamental changes towards sustainability at different scales. Economic geography has, however, so far glossed over a micro-perspective on such enterprises. In this paper, we define transformative enterprises in detail by systematically identifying and elaborating their characteris-tics and actions. We ask: What operationalizable character-istics that refer to transformative enterprises are discussed in the literature? How can we define transformative enterprises?Starting from a comprehensive literature review, we iden-tify nine key dimensions of transformative enterprises that we specify with a set of indicators, and we then synthesize our finding with a definition. With this contribution, we further develop the concept of transformative enterprise in economic geography and show how it complements current conceptualizations of firm-level agency and system-level agency

Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und Innovationsdynamiken in Kleinstädten

Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung von Kleinstädten wurde in der wirtschaftsgeographischen Forschung bisher unzureichend beleuchtet. Ein Grund dafür ist, dass Studien sich vor allem auf Großstädte fokussiert haben und kleinere Städte erst in den vergangenen Jahren mehr Aufmerksamkeit erhielten. Seit der Jahrtausendwende entwickelte sich die Gruppe der Kleinstädte in Deutschland hinsichtlich der Beschäftigten sehr positiv. Grundsätzlich muss die Annahme hinterfragt werden, dass städtische Größe automatisch zu wirtschaftlichem Erfolg führt. Nicht nur städtische Größe und somit Agglomerationsvorteile sind entscheidend, sondern auch andere Faktoren wie wirtschaftliche Struktur, Vernetzung, Innovation und lokale Strategien. Ein Fokus auf Innovationsdynamiken, die sich nicht nur im großstädtischen Umfeld entwickeln können, sondern auch in Kleinstädten entstehen, geht darüber hinaus auf den sogenannten urban bias in der Innovationsforschung ein. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die wirtschaftlichen Dynamiken und deren Einflussfaktoren für Kleinstädte auf der Basis von Studien, die sich seit der Jahrtausendwende mit diesem Städtetyp beschäftigten, diskutiert.To date, economic geographical research has not shed sufficient light on the economic development of small towns. One reason for this is that investigations have focused primarily on cities, small towns have only attracted more attention in recent years. Since 2000 small towns in Germany have developed very positively in terms of employment rates. The assumption that urban size automatically leads to economic success must be fundamentally challenged. It is not only urban size and agglomeration advantages that are decisive, but also other factors like economic structure, networking, innovation and local strategies. A focus on innovation impulses, which can develop in small towns as well as in city settings, also considers urban bias in innovation research. Based on studies since 2000 that have investigated this type of settlement, this article discusses economic trends and their influencing factors for small towns