Constructing Regional Advantage: Does it matter for Czech regions?

Innovation and competitiveness are two concepts which govern the national and regional policies throughout the world. Innovation is the key driver of global economic competitiveness. Regions are considered a key level where innovation processes are shaped, coordinated and governed through localized capabilities. While until recently competitiveness of economies was developed from comparative or competitive advantages, in the era of knowledge economy the new theory of constructed advantage allows for more attention to the role and impact of the public sector and public-private partnership in the economy, based upon the dimensions related and unrelated variety and differentiated knowledge bases. The key to the constructed advantage is regional innovation systems approach. The introduction to the new theory is explained in the paper in the view of European collaborative research project and the first assessment of how policies for constructing regional advantage can work within the environment of specific regions of the Czech Republic is proposed.Regional innovation system; comparative, competitive and constructed advantage; related and unrelated varieties; differentiated knowledge bases

Constructing Regional Advantage: Does it matter for Czech regions?

Innovation and competitiveness are two concepts which govern the national and regional policies throughout the world. Innovation is the key driver of global economic competitiveness. Regions are considered a key level where innovation processes are shaped, coordinated and governed through localized capabilities. While until recently competitiveness of economies was developed from comparative or competitive advantages, in the era of knowledge economy the new theory of constructed advantage allows for more attention to the role and impact of the public sector and public-private partnership in the economy, based upon the dimensions related and unrelated variety and differentiated knowledge bases. The key to the constructed advantage is regional innovation systems approach. The introduction to the new theory is explained in the paper in the view of European collaborative research project and the first assessment of how policies for constructing regional advantage can work within the environment of specific regions of the Czech Republic is proposed

Is Ostrava a shrinking city?

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Creative industries in spatial perspective in the old industrial Moravian-silesian region

The growing importance of creative industries has logically surfaced also in professional interest in the area of local and regional development. Close attention is paid to questions of spatial organi- zation of creative industries as well as possibilities of its stimulation in the interest of strengthening the competitive position of individual areas. A little less attention is usually paid to the role and spatial organization of the creative industries in diverse geographical conditions, such as old indu- strial or rural regions. Old industrial areas represent a specific type of problem regions and there are questions of how the creative industries can contribute to regeneration of old industrial regi- ons. The principal focus of this paper is mainly on factors and processes influencing the spatial organization, or respectively the concentration of creative industries in the framework of Moravian Silesian Region as an old industrial region. The Moravian-Silesian Region represents a classical old industrial region of peripheral character, in particular in relation to western markets. The traditi- onal sectors are among the most struck sectors in the region, which can in the future increase the demand for new ones, such as e.g. creative industries. Attention is further paid, on one hand, to internal structural characteristics of creative industries in the comparative perspective, and on the other hand to explanation of evolution in this sector in the region of interest. The objective is not to provide a comprehensive analysis, but more to attempt to articulate the initial principles and to outline possible trends of research in the conditions of the Czech Republic

Shrinking cities and governance of economic reneration: the case of Ostrava

The aim of the paper is to describe and analyse the process of urban shrinkage and especially the governance structures, actors and policies tackling the causes of urban shrinkage of the city of Ostrava. In the theoretical chapters, both urban (city) shrinkage and urban governance are conceptualized and an operationalization of these concepts is outlined. Urban shrinkage is understood as population losses and related phenomena such as housing vacancies, underused social infrastructures or different kind of brownfields etc. The research design for empirical study draws on mixed methodology – quantitative (analysis of statistical data) and qualitative research approaches and techniques such as interviews, stakeholder workshops and participatory observations. Research questions are defined and considered to be the starting point for elaboration of empirical case studies. First, brief description of causes of urban shrinkage of the city of Ostrava in the period 1990–2011 is presented. The main part of this paper focuses on the economic governance structures, actors and policies tackling the main cause of shrinkage, which are deindustrialization and job related out-migration, suburbanization and changes of demographic behaviour such as drop in birth rates. Ostrava is a slightly shrinking city (approximatelly 7 % population loss from 331.000 1990 to 306.000 in 2010), which managed thanks to appropriate economic governance in period 2004–2008 to slow down the population losses caused by job related out-migration. However, population losses will continue due to low birth rates and deaths surpluses or suburbanization

Where does the knowledge for knowledge-intensive industries come from? The case of Biotech in Prague and ICT in Ostrava

The primary aim of this paper is to contribute to current discussion, concerning the role of geography of knowledge sources in knowledge-intensive industries from the perspective of a post-communist country (the Czech Republic), with its specific cultural and historical heritage, as well as its specific institutional and policy context. The article analyses the extent, to which the theoretical conceptualization of analytical and synthetic knowledge bases could be relevant for the geography of knowledge sources, within the emerging ICT and biotech sectors, in two selected regions of the Czech Republic (Prague and Ostrava regions). Our findings confirm the existence of significant variation in the geography of knowledge sources, according to the type of knowledge base (analytical versus synthetic) and the type of knowledge itself (technological versus market knowledge). The article is an outcome of the international project “Constructing Regional Advantage: Towards State-of-the-art Regional Innovation Systems Policies in Europe?”.Web of Science197 (special issue)1303127

Urban Shrinkage and Sustainability: Assessing the Nexus between Population Density, Urban Structures and Urban Sustainability

Urban shrinkage has become a common pathway (not only) in post-socialist cities, which represents new challenges for traditionally growth-oriented spatial planning. Though in the post-socialist area, the situation is even worse due to prevailing weak planning culture and resulting uncoordinated development. The case of the city of Ostrava illustrates how the problem of (in)efficient infrastructure operation, and maintenance, in already fragmented urban structure is exacerbated by the growing size of urban area (through low-intensity land-use) in combination with declining size of population (due to high rate of outmigration). Shrinkage, however, is, on the intra-urban level, spatially differentiated. Population, paradoxically, most intensively declines in the least financially demanding land-uses and grows in the most expensive land-uses for public administration. As population and urban structure development prove to have strong inertia, this land-use development constitutes a great challenge for a city’s future sustainability. The main objective of the paper is to explore the nexus between change in population density patterns in relation to urban shrinkage, and sustainability of public finance

Innovation and knowledge sourcing of modern sectors in old industrial regions: comparing software firms in Moravia-Silesia and Upper Austria

Old industrial regions in many cases suffer from a predominance of basic and traditional industries as well as a lack of modern sectors and of innovation. Often we find this type of region oriented to traditional sectors and technology paths. The development of new sectors such as software might help to overcome such problems and contribute to diversification and a better innovation performance of such regions. In this context, we examine to what extent the different socioeconomic and institutional background of old industrial regions has an impact on firms’ innovation performance and knowledge sourcing in the new sector. For this purpose we compare software companies in the Czech region of Moravia-Silesia and in the Austrian region of Upper Austria. Both are regions with a considerable industrial tradition but with a quite different historical and institutional background. Whereas Moravia-Silesia region is a part of Czechia – a transformed country with a state socialism and central planning background – Upper Austria is a relatively wealthy region within an advanced market economy with a social partnership background. In this paper we investigate to what extent software firms in these two regions differ in their innovation activities and knowledge-sourcing patterns and how this is related to the institutional background and characteristics of their respective regional innovation systems.Web of Science20220518