Knowledge creation and innovation beyond agglomeration: The case of Hidden Champions in Germany

In economic geography, a main research focus is on the relationship between innovation and space. Based on the observations of spatially clustered innovative activities in urban environments, a central argument is that the exchange of innovation-relevant knowledge across firms and other actors as well as the accompanying learning processes are promoted through geographical proximity. Agglomerations are said to offer multiple advantages, e.g. through frequent face-to-face contacts and opportunities for intense collaboration, a common labour pool and shared institutions. From this perspective, a location in large urban environments is beneficial for innovation, while by contrast, being located outside of agglomerations is not (Fitjar & Rodríguez‐Pose 2019). This dissertation relates to growing debates around the unease with the seemingly accepted truths about the strong connection of agglomerations and firm innovation. The research field has been found to be urban-biased, focussed on cases of successful regions and delivering multiple explanations of their success – while neglecting innovations occurring outside of agglomerations and largely portraying such regions and their actors as disadvantaged (Shearmur 2017). Within the emergent studies of innovation in peripheral contexts, some specifics have been proposed based on empirical studies, but a coherent theoretical framework is missing (e.g. Eder 2019). Against this background, this dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of innovation from a peripheral perspective based on comparison of firms by location. It explores knowledge creation processes and innovation activities of Hidden Champions in Germany. These highly innovative and globally active manufacturing firms are quite evenly distributed across Germany. By exploring practices and strategies of these firms towards innovation from a comparative perspective, this study investigates the following overarching research question: • What are the characteristics and main drivers of innovation outside of agglomerations and in how far do these differ from those inside agglomerations? This research builds on relational perspectives on economic action by adopting a geographical lens (Bathelt & Glückler 2003, Yeung 2005). It focusses on actors and how they act and interact in space without privileging any spatial scale or mechanism such as local interaction. Spaces and places are not perceived as territorially bounded units but as contexts in which actors organise their often multi-scalar relations. Following these basic theoretical positions, several concepts and approaches are utilised to develop a detailed understanding of firm innovation in space. While notions of slow innovation and the reliance on firm-internal capabilities point towards reduced interaction requirements especially of firms in peripheral regions to innovate (e.g. Shearmur 2015), the proximity approach (Boschma 2005) and the notion of global pipelines (Bathelt et al. 2004) highlight that geographical proximity is not a necessary precondition for interactive knowledge creation and innovation. Based on these conceptual perspectives and linked to the goal of understanding key mechanisms of innovation from a peripheral perspective, the guiding research question is complemented by the following sub-questions: • How and where do firms gain relevant knowledge for their innovation activities? • Which role do internal capabilities as well as external efforts towards innovation play and how do firms assess both dimensions? • What is the role of the firms’ location, especially regarding local options of knowledge creation? Based on a mixed method research design including a quantitative survey among the Hidden Champions and qualitative interviews with representatives of these firms, three dimensions relevant to the understanding of knowledge creation and innovation are considered for the empirical analyses: practices of knowledge creation at the individual level, strategic approaches towards innovation at the organisational level and the socio-spatial contexts in which knowledge creation processes and innovation are organised. The overarching finding of this dissertation is that firms like Hidden Champions largely follow the same principles to innovate independently from their location. Thereby, the results highlight the commonalities of firm innovation in urban and peripheral contexts instead of pointing towards major limitations or specificities of innovation in more peripheral regions. With taking the firm at the centre of analysis, this research demonstrates that regional economic pre-conditions do not necessarily relate to the capacities of firms to innovate. Neither do investigated firms located inside agglomera-tions largely capitalise on options of local interaction, nor do firms located outside of agglomerations face major disadvantages due to the lack of local options to source knowledge and interact. Instead and irrespectively of their location, firms strategically engage in various firm-internal and -external options to gain knowledge and have the capacities to shape their multi-scalar socio-spatial contexts for knowledge creation according to their needs. The results underline that intense interaction with externals is only one out of many options for firms to gain knowledge. Next to strong internal capabilities, non-interactive modes of knowledge sourcing via desk research, for instance, and more informal modes of knowledge creation via the participation in trade fairs have been identified as integral parts of firms’ innovation activities. This study suggests that such forms of ‘selective openness’ have not been sufficiently addressed in the research field so far. Selective openness not only stresses the strategic approaches of firms towards innovation but also the variety of options for knowledge creation which are usually not reliant on or connected to the regional contexts of firms. Moreover, this study finds that the connection between innovation and agglomeration is not as clear as suggested by urban perspectives, at least for the German context. Rather, much of the urban/rural and core/periphery divide seems to be discursively produced. This dissertation complements existing research on the geographies of innovation by providing insights from a peripheral view on innovation. It contributes to current debates on urban-biased perspectives and the dichotomous representation of firm innovation in urban and peripheral contexts. Based on the empirical results, it proposes a more differentiated view on openness and suggests recommendations for place-based policies towards regional development and innovation.:Summary 9 1. Introduction 11 1.1. Research objectives and questions 13 1.2. Hidden Champions in Germany 16 1.3. Structure of the dissertation 18 2. Re-thinking the geographies of firm innovation 21 2.1. Firms and innovation 22 2.1.1. Understanding firm innovation 24 2.1.2. Coordination of internal and external knowledge for innovation 25 2.1.3. Varieties of open innovation 29 2.2. Geographies and innovation 33 2.2.1. Beyond territorial innovation 34 2.2.2. Questioning the status quo: urban bias and the periphery label 41 2.2.3. Current understandings of innovation outside of agglomerations 45 2.3. Conceptual framework 51 2.3.1. Positioning the own research 51 2.3.2. A relational perspective on economic processes in space 55 2.3.3. Beyond dualistic conceptualisations of innovation and space 59 3. Methodological approach 66 3.1. Critical realism as the basic ontological and epistemological perspective 66 3.1.1. Basics notions of critical realism 67 3.1.2. Implications for research methodologies 68 3.2. Research design 69 3.2.1. Multi-dimensional comparative approach 70 3.2.2. Triangulation 72 3.2.3. Comparison 73 3.3. Empirical and analytical methods and proceedings 75 3.3.1. Development of a database of Hidden Champions in Germany 75 3.3.2. Quantitative survey 81 3.3.3. Semi-structured interviews 85 4. Patterns and socio-spatial contexts of firm innovation – Quantitative results 90 4.1. The spatial distribution of Hidden Champions in Germany 90 4.2. Firm characteristics and innovation patterns 93 4.2.1. Organisational and spatial aspects of firm structures 93 4.2.2. Innovation activities 94 4.2.3. Information sources and collaboration 96 4.3. Comparison of the firms by location 98 4.4. Types of innovative firms 101 4.4.1. Approach, implementation and results of the cluster analysis 102 4.4.2. Types of innovators and their locations 107 4.5. Interim results and arising questions 110 5. Strategies and practices towards knowledge creation and innovation – Qualitative results 113 5.1. Firm profiles 116 5.1.1. Firms located outside of agglomerations 116 5.1.2. Firms located inside agglomerations 120 5.2. The global integration of firms 124 5.2.1. Firms, their niche markets and ways of internationalisation 124 5.2.2. Knowledge creation strategies and the role of geography 127 5.2.3. Organisational structures to secure the global reach 134 5.2.4. The significance of innovation and high quality 136 5.3. Strategies towards innovation 137 5.3.1. Corporate culture and ambition 138 5.3.2. Key internal and external drivers of innovation 139 5.3.3. The temporal dimension of innovation 142 5.4. Firm-internal organisation of innovation activities 144 5.4.1. Main challenges 145 5.4.2. The headquarters as the central corporate unit 148 5.4.3. Internationalisation of knowledge creation and innovation 150 5.5. The external dimension of innovation activities 155 5.5.1. Access to external sources of knowledge 155 5.5.2. Collaboration with partners 158 5.5.3. Evaluation of the external dimension for innovation 164 5.6. The role of the regional contexts for firm innovation 165 5.6.1. The perception of regional contexts at the headquarters 166 5.6.2. The regional embeddedness of firms 171 5.6.3. Evaluation of the regional dimension 175 5.7. Summary of findings and comparison with the quantitative results 176 6. Firm innovation beyond agglomeration – Discussion of results 180 6.1. Globally dispersed knowledge dynamics and secrecy 180 6.2. The processual character of innovation activities 185 6.3. The role of the places and spaces for firm innovation 191 7. Main findings, conclusions and outlook 196 7.1. Summary of main findings and contributions of the research 196 7.2. Conclusions and policy recommendations 200 7.3. Reflections on the study and avenues for future research 202 Appendices 206 References 22

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the IHI Joy in Work Framework Among Nurses

Background: Registered nurses are leaving the bedside at alarming numbers with many of them suffering from burnout, a decrease in compassion satisfaction, a lack of joy in work, and/or lack of work-life balance. It is critical these issues within nursing are identified and mitigated in order to reduce the number of nurses planning on leaving the bedside as 33% of nurses are currently considering leaving their role or reducing their hours. This statistic does not help with the current nursing shortage and its prediction to continue to grow with employment needs for nurses expected to increase 9% more than any other occupation in the United States. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of the IHI’s Joy in Work Framework among registered nurses at the bedside. The specific aims were: 1. An overall improvement in joy in work, 2. An improved ability to maintain a work-life balance, 3. An improvement in compassion satisfaction among staff, and 4. A reduction in burnout among staff. These aims were used to respond to the question, among registered nurses, what is the effect of implementing the IHI Joy in Work Framework on joy, burnout, compassion satisfaction, and work-life balance in an acute care setting during a four-month study? Design: A pre-post study design was used to assess the specific aims of the study: 1. An overall improvement in joy in work, 2. An improved ability to maintain a work-life balance, 3. An improvement in compassion satisfaction among staff, and 4. A reduction in burnout among staff. Methods: Sixty-five registered nurses were asked to participate in this project by taking a pre- survey, working through the Joy in Work Framework, and taking a post-survey during a four- month period. Conclusion: The short timeline and underpowered sample size impeded this study; however, there were still findings that are useful for the unit and organization. With the implementation of three small changes over a four-month study, there was a slight improvement in compassion satisfaction and burnout

How what type of news you watch can influence how you reactto a scandal in a presidential primary.

Despite the 2016 election being more than a year away the presidential primary season appears to be in full swing, especially for the Republican Party, with its plethora of candidates. With the possibility of a scandal breaking for at least one candidate before the primary a seeming near certainty, it’s useful to examine why voters react to scandals in the way that they do. David A. M. Peterson and Beth Miller Vonnahme investigate the scandal around allegations of sexual harassment in 2012 that ended Herman Cain’s bid for the nomination. They find that those who watched network news declined the most in their assessment of Cain after the scandal, and cable news watchers, the least

Conceptus Competition for Nutrients in the Porcine Uterus: Different Strategies Exhibited by the Meishan and Yorkshire Pig Breeds

Previous research from our laboratory demonstrated that Meishan conceptuses develop more slowly and synchronously to day 30 of gestation than conceptuses of U.S. pig breeds. Furthermore, the reduced size of the Meishan conceptus on day 30 allows more Meishan than Yorkshire conceptuses to occupy the same amount of limited uterine space. As a result, Meishan litter size is significantly larger than that of U.S. pig breeds (13−14 vs. 9-10 piglets/litter). An additional consistent, but unexpected, finding in the Meishan pig was the observation that there was significantly greater amounts of unoccupied uterine space in the Meishan than the Yorkshire female at term. We previously demonstrated that an additional strategy of the Meishan female to increase fecundity was to super-vascularize its placental membranes so that oxygen and nutrient transfer from the sow could be accomplished over a reduced surface area, negating the necessity of further placental growth. These data suggested that when a Meishan conceptus dies, the placenta of its neighbors need not grow into this newly vacated space, whereas the Yorkshire conceptus might increase the size of its less vascular placenta to use the opportunity. Therefore, it was our objective to confirm that Yorkshire conceptuses, but not Meishan conceptuses increase their placental size when adjacent conceptuses are experimentally destroyed on day 40 of gestation. To accomplish this objective, pregnant Meishan and Yorkshire females were laporatomized on day 40. One uterine horn was randomly chosen to be receive alternative fetal crushing (i.e., every other fetus in the horn was crushed by mechanical pressure), whereas the other uterine horn served as the control horn. At slaughter on day 111 of gestation (term = 114 days), we found no differences in fetal weight between the control and treated horns regardless of breed. Similarly, there was no difference in placental weight or surface area or implantation site length (the length of placental attachment in the uterine horn) between the control and treated horns in the Meishan. In contrast, however, there was a marked increase in placental weight and surface area, as well as implantation site length for conceptuses in the treated horn of the Yorkshire gilts versus the control horn. Furthermore, the unoccupied spaces between Meishan conceptuses in the treated horn were 2-fold greater than for conceptuses in the control horn, whereas there were no differences in the length of unoccupied spaces between conceptuses in the Yorkshire’s control or treated horns. These data suggest that in the Meishan treated horn, conceptuses do not use this extra space as effectively as conceptuses in the Yorkshire treated horn. The inability of Meishan placenta to grow into adjacent unoccupied spaces may not be detrimental to conceptus survival due to its greater ability to increase vascular density in response to increasing fetal demands. If U.S. pig breeds have the potential to increase placental vascularity, rather than increase in placental size to nourish the growing fetuses, the potential exists for increasing litter size due to a decrease in uterine competition throughout gestation

Aww, Shucky Ducky: Voter Response to Accusations of Herman Cain’s “Inappropriate Behavior”

In a Fox News Poll from October 23 to 25, Herman Cain’s 24% led all candidates for the GOP nomination. On October 30, 2011, Politico reported that two women accused Cain of sexual harassment and misconduct. Two additional women came forward to accuse Cain of sexual harassment.4 In late November, a fifth woman alleged that she had a 13-year affair with Cain. Although Cain denied the allegations and the affair, he suspended his campaign on December 3 as a result of these “character assassinations.”6 This rapid deterioration of Cain’s presidential trajectory illustrates that the public seems to care about the scandalous behavior of candidates. Although several studies identify a negative eff ect of scandal on the public’s attitudes, individual-level predispositions often moderate this reaction. Specifically, motivated reasoning encourages biased processing of scandalous information such that a candidate’s fellow partisans are least affected by the scandal

Use of Asynchronous Embryo Transfer to Investigate the Role of Uterine-embryo Timing on Placental Size

The ability of the uterus to accommodate a finite amount of placental tissue appears to be a major limitation to litter size. Meishan preimplantation conceptuses contain fewer cells, produce less estradiol-17β, elongate to a shorter length, and exhibit a reduced placental size throughout gestation than Yorkshire conceptuses. Uterine luminal embryonic estradiol-17β and growth factor content are positively associated at elongation. Based on these data, we have argued that growth factor quantity regulates the length an embryo attains at elongation, and ultimately limits placental size. Recently, we injected Meishan gilts every 6 hours with estradiol-17β on day 12 and 13 of gestation, resulting in a 40% increase in placental size at term compared with vehicle-injected Meishan gilts. This study was conducted to determine if transfer of embryos into the oviducts of asynchronous females (more or less advanced uterine environments) would alter fetal and/or placental size at term. Embryos (1 to 4 cells) were flushed from the oviducts of each donor gilt on day 2.5 of gestation and transferred in equal numbers to the oviducts of a recipient gilt on day 1.5, 2.5, or 3.5 of their estrous cycle. Gilts were slaughtered on day 112 of gestation and fetal and placental weight, placental surface area, and implantation site lengths were determined. Although litter sizes were similar (8.4 ± 1.1), conceptuses transferred to day 3.5 recipients had heavier fetuses (1.57 ± .09 vs. 1.23 ± .04 kg, P\u3c.001), larger placental surface area (1812 ± 106 vs. 1458 ± 43 cm 2 , P\u3c.01) and occupied longer implantation site length (34 ± 3 vs. 25 ± 1 cm, P\u3c.001) than those transferred to recipients on day 1.5 or 2.5. These data demonstrate that oviductal transfer of embryos to a reproductive tract as little as 24 hours more advanced can result in dramatic alterations in placental growth and function during gestation

Registration Deadlines and Turnout in Context

Abstract This paper analyzes the effect of registration deadlines on voter turnout. The theoretical explanation considers how registration deadlines affect turnout when individuals influence the participation of others. The theoretical model leads to a novel empirical hypothesis, that deadlines can have both a direct and indirect effect on turnout through a behavioral contagion process. The paper reports empirical findings that confirm the theoretical expectations. These results have important implications for future research on registration deadlines and Election Day registration as the effects of these reforms depend on the specific social context in which they are adopted. Keywords Voter registration Á Closing dates Á Turnout Á Networks This paper analyzes the effect of voter registration deadlines on turnout. A large literature examines the effects of registration on turnout (e.g

Herausforderung soziale Teilhabe: Repair-Cafes als Orte inklusiver nachhaltiger Entwicklung?

In the past few years, debates increasingly emerge that discuss the potential of repair and DIY initiatives to contribute to inclusive and sustainable developments. It is argued that initiatives enable individuals to take responsibility for sustainable consumption. Moreover, they are said to promote citizen empowerment and collaborative practices and therefore strengthening social transformations processes towards sustainability. Currently, there is little research that looks at whether the empowerment of citizen through repair and DIY activities will be inclusive to all people and enable more sustainable consumption patterns. This paper develops first ideas, questions and categories to observe the possibilities and constraints for inclusiveness in repair cafés, enabling collaborative practise and creating seedbeds for social transformations. We draw on a social practice theory approach and normative (evaluation) perspectives for inclusiveness to empirically examine practices in repair cafés through participant observations