Informal networking: An overview of the literature and an agenda for future research

Informal inter-organizational networks provide manifold opportunities to organize the transfer of information, knowledge and technology between actors. Given their potential and their importance, the lack of theoretical discussion and empirical research on informal networks and their dynamics is surprising. The objective of this paper is twofold. It attempts to review the fragmented academic discussion of the notion of informal networking, thereby focusing on how these relationships emerge initially and what conditions (presumably) are required to make them a mutually fruitful and sustainable channel of the transfer of information and knowledge. On that groundwork, the most important empirical studies which try to confirm and disentangle the aforementioned basic mechanisms of informal exchange relationships are reviewed. Finally, we outline an agenda of future research directions that we encourage researchers to pursue in future empirical studies. Five important research gaps can be identified. -- Informelle Netzwerkstrukturen bieten vielfältige Möglichkeiten, den Transfer von Informationen, Wissen und Technologie zwischen Akteuren zu organisieren. In Anbetracht des Potentials sowie der Bedeutung informeller Netzwerke ist der bestehende Mangel an theoretischen Diskussionen wie auch empirischer Forschung überraschend. Hier setzt der Beitrag an, indem eine Bündelung der bislang lediglich in Fragmenten vorliegenden Auseinandersetzung mit dem Konzept informeller Netzwerke vorgenommen wird. Der Fokus wird dabei auf Fragen der Entstehung solcher Netzwerkstrukturen sowie auf diejenigen Faktoren gelegt, die notwendig sind, informelle Netzwerke als effektiven und beständigen Kanal des Wissens- und Technologietransfers nutzbar zu machen. In einem zweiten Teil des Beitrags wird ein Überblick über die wichtigsten, zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt existierenden, Studien gegeben, die sich empirisch mit dem Konzept informeller Netzwerkstrukturen auseinandersetzen. Basierend auf dieser Aufarbeitung werden anschließend fünf wichtige Forschungsfragen formuliert, die im Fokus zukünftiger Forschungsbestrebungen stehen sollten.Informelle Netzwerke,Information trading,Wissenstransfer,Literaturüberblick

Political Institutionalisation and Economic Specialisation in Polycentric Metropolitan Regions – The Case of the East-German ‘Saxony Triangle’

The rising attention of politicians as well as scientists in the EU to the large urban agglomerations as centres of economic growth is accompanied by political efforts to identify and to demarcate such agglomerations under the label ‘metropolitan regions’. This study develops a theoretical framework broaching the issue of cooperation between municipalities from the perspective of regional economics as well as political science. The framework is applied to the empirical case of the polycentric metropolitan region ‘Saxony Triangle’ in East Germany. The results show that various intervening factors prevent intense cooperation between the actors in the region. Policy implications and con- clusions for future research are discussed.polycentric urban regions, metropolitan regions, saxony triangle, cooperation agglomeration, correspondence analysis

Industry Concentration and Regional Innovative Performance – Empirical Evidence for Eastern Germany

Regarding technological innovativeness, the transformed economy of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) clearly lags behind the Western part of the country. To face this weakness, a broad mixture of policy measures was carried out in recent years. Particular attention is drawn to the development of industry concentrations and economic ‘clusters’. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these policy measures regarding how industry concentrations in fact promote innovative performance in Eastern Germany. The present study tries to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship between industry concentration in Eastern Germany and regional innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based upon the number of patent applications of 22 manufacturing industries in 22 Eastern German planning regions. The estimated regression models indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between the degree of industry concentration and innovative performance. An exceedingly high degree of industry concentration in one region hampers regional innovative output. We discuss policy implications of our findings and give recommendations for future refinement of ‘cluster’-supporting policy schemes in Eastern Germany.industry concentration; agglomeration; specialization; cluster; innovation; patents; east germany

Im Fokus: Unternehmensnetzwerke in Ostdeutschland und ihre Entwicklung

Im Rahmen einer IWH-Studie zum Thema „Ökonomische Entwicklungskerne in Ostdeutschland“ war u. a. erstmalig eine flächendeckende Bestandsaufnahme von Unternehmensnetzwerken in den Neuen Ländern vorgenommen worden. Nachdem seit dieser Erhebung mehr als fünf Jahre vergangen sind, wird gegenwärtig der Frage nachgegangen, welche der damals identifizierten Netzwerke zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt noch bestehen. Dabei wird unterschieden, ob es sich bei den damals erfassten Netzwerken um geförderte oder um nicht geförderte Netzwerke handelt.

Regionale Unterschiede der Kooperationsmuster der deutschen Photovoltaik-Industrie

Der Beitrag analysiert das Kooperationsgeschehen in der deutschen Photovoltaik-Industrie. Ausgehend von den theoretischen Vorteilen, die Kooperationen in stadt- und regionalökonomischen Ansätzen zugeschrieben werden, wird geprüft, inwieweit die tatsächlich bestehenden Kooperationsmuster in den verschiedenen Bundesländern den aus theoretischer Sicht günstigen Kooperationsmustern entsprechen. Hierzu erfolgt eine vergleichende Beschreibung der Kooperationsstrukturen der Industrie in und zwischen den einzelnen Bundesländern. Die Untersuchung basiert auf der „IWH-Unternehmensdatenbank Photovoltaik“, die u. a. Informationen zu den Kooperationsbeziehungen zwischen den in der Datenbank enthaltenen Unternehmen und öffentlichen Forschungseinrichtungen enthält. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die Kooperationsintensitäten in und zwischen den Bundesländern deutlich voneinander unterscheiden. Dabei sind insbesondere die mitteldeutschen Bundesländer Sachsen, Sachsen- Anhalt und Thüringen durch eine starke gegenseitige und deutschlandweite Vernetzung gekennzeichnet. Hingegen sind die Akteure in der Region Berlin-Brandenburg, die ähnlich wie Mitteldeutschland durch eine hohe Konzentration an Photovoltaikunternehmen gekennzeichnet ist, deutlich weniger in Netzwerkstrukturen eingebunden.

Is There a Way for Old Industrial Districts to Become Attractive for Cultural Industry? The Case of Media Businesses in Halle (Saale), Germany

manufacturing have collapsed are trying to stimulate entrepreneurial activities of businesses in the cultural industry. The question is whether this strategy could be successful. This article examines the strategy of supporting the sector of Media Industry (´MI´) by policy makers in the region of Halle in East Germany, where a strong de-industrialization has taken place after the German reunification. Stimulated by the policy makers’ support measures, there actually was a remarkable development of MI. However, the number of MI firms and their employees did not further increase in recent years, after having reached a certain level. This illustrates the limits of political measures for turning a city’s path of industrial development voluntarily.media industry, cultural industry, business development, urban development, location factors

Räumliche Branchenschwerpunkte als Innovationsmotoren? – empirische Befunde aus Ostdeutschland

A positive relation between the spatial concentration of sectors and their capacity of innovation is frequently assumed in regional science as well as in regional development policy. Therefore, with the support of sectoral agglomeration, effects on the regional technological performance are expected. However, previous empirical work is inconsistent in supporting this interdependency. This study aims to examine the effects of sectoral agglomeration on innovative activities in East-German regions. For this purpose, spatially concentrated industries are identified and included in the estimation of regional ‘knowledge-production-functions’. Contrary to expectations, the spatial concentration seems to inhibit the amount of patent-activities of the sector in the specific region. In contrast, positive effects are generated from research facilities. Moreover, we find evidence for intersectoral spillovers. The results show that for innovative activities, urbanization effects have a higher relevance as localization effects. So far, spatially concentrated industries are not an innovation driver in East Germany.

Im Fokus: Technologie- und Gründerzentren – Spezialisierung nimmt zu!

For nearly 30 years, business incubators are at the heart of urban technology and innovation policies in Germany. A recent study by the Halle Institute for Economic Research shows that there has been an increasing tendency for establishing specialized incubators that focus their support elements, processes and selection criteria on firms from one specific sector (in most cases knowledge-intensive sectors), and its particular needs. Among the total number of 413 business incubators currently operating in Germany, 94 can be classified as being specialized. Among the German specialized incubators, the vast majority specialize in biotechnology.

Technologie- und Gründerzentren im Lichte von Diversifizierung versus Spezialisierung

In Germany, a growing tendency can be observed to focus business incubators (BIs) and technology centers and their respective support elements and processes as well as the selection criteria applied by the incubator management on firms from solely one sector or few but complementary sectors and their specific needs and requirements. These are called specialized business incubators (SBIs). Despite the increasing importance of specialization strategies of business incubators as local and regional policy instruments, there are no reliable empirical examinations of the specifics, and advantages in particular, of SBIs compared to more diversified BIs. On the basis of survey-data, that comprises responses from 161 actual firms incubated in 13 diversified BIs and 13 specialized BIs in Germany, this study investigates the mechanisms within the specific context of specialized BIs and their value-added contribution versus the more diversified incubation model. For the first time, this study provides large-scale empirical evidence concerning the effects of adopting a specialization strategy in the context of business incubation.business incubators, science parks, specialization, diversification, location advantages, local technology policy

Unternehmensnetzwerke in der Photovoltaik-Industrie – starke Verbundenheit und hohe Kooperationsintensität

The Photovoltaic-(PV)-Industry is a comparatively new industrial sector which is affected by high level of uncertainty. This uncertainty is derived from different technology paths as same as uncertainty about the future market developments. Important instruments to come up with uncertainty are firm networks. Thereby the state of the knowledge about the degree of interconnectedness between the German PV-industry is poor. This article aims to close this gap by giving an overview about the integration of PV-enterprises in firm networks. The empirical analysis of the network structure of the German PV-industry thereby confirms the expected high level of network relations. Almost nine out of ten firms cooperate with other PV-firms in Germany. Also, the intensity of cooperation turns out to be above the average compared to other industrial sectors. On average one PV-firm cooperates with 5.8 other PV-firms. This indicates possibilities for a better knowledge exchange in the sector. Overall the high cooperation intensity supports the assumption that PV-industry is able to benefit from the spatial concentration of the industry in the region. Despite the dense network which has already emerged, the promotion of networks can still be an efficient paradigm to support innovativeness and growth in this sector. This is going to be even more successful if the results of the network analysis are integrated into the government supporting scheme.