Regional evolution and waves of growth: A knowledge-based perspective

The evolution of a regional economy and its competitiveness capacity may involve multiple independent trajectories through which different sets of resources and capabilities evolve together. However, there is a dearth of evidence concerning how these trends are occurring across the globe. Based on the underlying tenets of the streams of research relating to regional competitiveness, knowledge cities/regions, and knowledge-based urban development, this paper seeks to present an empirical approach to establishing such evidence in relation to the recent development of the globe’s most productive regions from the viewpoint of their growth trajectories and the particular form of growth they are experiencing. The aim is to uncover the underlying structure of the changes in knowledge-based resources, capabilities and outputs across regions, and offer an analysis of these regions according to an uncovered set of key trends. The analysis identifies three key trends by which the economic evolution and growth patterns of these regions are differentiated – namely Fifth Wave Growth, Third & Fourth Wave Growth, and Government-led Third Wave Growth. Overall, spectacular knowledge-based growth of leading Chinese regions is evident, highlighting a continued shift of knowledge-based resources to Asia. In addition, a superstructure is observed at the global scale, consisting of two separate continuums that explicitly distinguish Chinese regions from the rest in terms of regional growth trajectories.

[1]  K. Pavitt,et al.  R&D Patenting and Innovative Activities : A Statistical Exploration : Research Policy , 1982 .

[2]  Francisco Javier Carrillo,et al.  Capital cities: a taxonomy of capital accounts for knowledge cities , 2004, J. Knowl. Manag..

[3]  A. Jaffe.  Real Effects of Academic Research , 1989 .

[4]  Alex Coad,et al.  Regional Dynamics of Innovation: Investigating the Co-evolution of Patents, Research and Development (R&D), and Employment , 2012 .

[5]  C. Freeman.  Continental, national and sub-national innovation systems--complementarity and economic growth , 2002 .

[6]  Andrés Rodríguez-Pose,et al.  From R&D to Innovation and Economic Growth in the EU , 2004 .

[7]  Kevin O'Connor,et al.  The making of knowledge cities: Melbourne's knowledge-based urban development experience , 2008 .

[8]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[9]  I. Begg.  Cities and Competitiveness , 1999 .

[10]  D. Bartholomew.  Latent Variable Models And Factor Analysis , 1987 .

[11]  María del Rosario González Ovalle,et al.  A compilation of resources on knowledge cities and knowledge-based development , 2004, J. Knowl. Manag..

[12]  Riccardo Crescenzi,et al.  Research and Development, Spillovers, Innovation Systems, and the Genesis of Regional Growth in Europe , 2006 .

[13]  Andrey Korotayev,et al.  Kondratieff Waves in Global Invention Activity (1900–2008) , 2011 .

[14]  Stijn Claessens,et al.  Cross-Country Experiences and Policy Implications from the Global Financial Crisis , 2010 .

[15]  Edward J. Malecki,et al.  Cities and Regions Competing in the Global Economy: Knowledge and Local Development Policies , 2007 .

[16]  Tan Yigitcanlar,et al.  Benchmarking knowledge-based urban development performance : Results from the international comparison of Helsinki , 2013 .

[17]  Ron Martin,et al.  Regional Competitiveness: An Elusive yet Key Concept? , 2004 .

[18]  S. Borrás.  System of innovation theory and the European Union , 2004 .

[19]  Robert Huggins,et al.  Competing for Knowledge: Creating, Connecting and Growing , 2007 .

[20]  R. Huggins,et al.  A Network-based view of regional growth , 2014 .

[21]  Jan Fagerberg,et al.  Technology and competitiveness , 1996 .

[22]  J. Essletzbichler,et al.  The Evolution of Regional Labour Productivities in Japanese Manufacturing, 1968–2004 , 2010 .

[23]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  An Overview of Innovation , 2009 .

[24]  H. Linstone,et al.  The growth dynamics of the Internet and the long wave theory , 2005 .

[25]  A. Markusen.  Sticky Places in Slippery Space: A Typology of Industrial Districts* , 1996 .

[26]  Richard V. Knight,et al.  Knowledge-based Development: Policy and Planning Implications for Cities , 1995 .

[27]  Knowledge-based Development in Leading Regions across the Globe: An Exploratory Analysis of the co-Evolution of Resources, Capabilities and Outputs , 2013 .

[28]  W. Stolper,et al.  The Long Waves in Economic Life , 1935 .

[29]  Christian Reiner,et al.  Brain competition policy as a new paradigm of regional policy: A European perspective , 2010 .

[30]  Cliff Wymbs.  Telecommunications, an instrument of radical change for both the 20th and 21st centuries , 2004 .

[31]  M. Dunford.  Old Europe, New Europe and the USA , 2005 .

[32]  Tan Yigitcanlar,et al.  Planning for knowledge-based urban development: global perspectives , 2009, J. Knowl. Manag..

[33]  H. Linstone,et al.  Technological innovation and the long wave theory revisited , 2012 .

[34]  S. Iammarino,et al.  The structure and evolution of industrial clusters: Transactions, technology and knowledge spillovers , 2006 .

[35]  Bo Carlsson,et al.  Innovation Systems: A Survey of the Literature from a Schumpeterian Perspective , 2007 .

[36]  R. Boschma.  Competitiveness of Regions from an Evolutionary Perspective , 2004 .

[37]  Thomas Baumert,et al.  The determinants of regional innovation in Europe: A combined factorial and regression knowledge production function approach , 2010 .

[38]  Tan Yigitcanlar,et al.  Making Space and Place for the Knowledge Economy: Knowledge-based Development of Australian Cities , 2010 .

[39]  Şükrü Yurtsever,et al.  Investigating the Recovery Strategies of European Union from the Global Financial Crisis , 2011 .

[40]  Peter Hall,et al.  The Carrier Wave: New Information Technology and the Geography of Innovation 1846-2003 , 1988 .

[41]  D. Doloreux,et al.  Regional innovation systems: Current discourse and unresolved issues , 2005 .

[42]  Jörg Döpke.  The "Employment Intensity" of Growth in Europe , 2001 .

[43]  Mari Sako,et al.  Are Skills the Answer , 1999 .

[44]  Mario Pianta,et al.  The employment impact of innovation: Evidence and policy , 2000 .

[45]  K. Koschatzky,et al.  A new Challenge for Regional Policy-Making in Europe? Chances and Risks of the Merger Between Cohesion and Innovation Policy , 2010 .

[46]  R. Huggins.  Creating a UK Competitiveness Index: Regional and Local Benchmarking , 2003 .

[47]  E. Malecki,et al.  Jockeying for Position: What It Means and Why It Matters to Regional Development Policy When Places Compete , 2004 .

[48]  R. Camagni,et al.  Regional Competitiveness and Territorial Capital: A Conceptual Approach and Empirical Evidence from the European Union , 2013 .

[49]  G. Schwarz.  Estimating the Dimension of a Model , 1978 .

[50]  B. Carlsson.  Internationalization of innovation systems: A survey of the literature ☆ , 2006 .

[51]  L. Anselin,et al.  Patents and innovation counts as measures of regional production of new knowledge , 2002 .

[52]  R. Huggins,et al.  The competitiveness of China's Leading Regions: Benchmarking Their Knowledge‐based Economies , 2014 .

[53]  Thomas Hatzichronoglou.  Revision of the High-Technology Sector and Product Classification , 1997 .

[54]  Tan Yigitcanlar,et al.  Knowledge That Matters: Identifying Regional Knowledge Assets of the Tampere Region , 2014 .

[55]  Klaus R. Kunzmann,et al.  The Strategic Dimensions of Knowledge industries in Urban Development , 2009 .

[56]  Thomas Baumert,et al.  Regional Systems of Innovation and the Knowledge Production Function: The Spanish Case , 2006 .

[57]  R. Stimson,et al.  Modeling regional endogenous growth: an application to the non-metropolitan regions of Australia , 2009 .

[58]  Michael Fritsch,et al.  Measuring the Quality of Regional Innovation Systems: A Knowledge Production Function Approach , 2002 .

[59]  N. Phelps,et al.  Contrasts in agglomeration: proto-industrial, industrial and post-industrial forms compared , 2003 .

[60]  Winfried Stier.  Die ”langen Wellen” in der Konjunktur: Einige statistische Bemerkungen , 1976 .

[61]  Jim Taylor,et al.  Human Capital Formation and Local Economic Performance , 1996 .

[62]  R. Crescenzi,et al.  The territorial dynamics of innovation: a Europe-United States Comparative Analysis , 2007 .

[63]  R. Huggins,et al.  The Global Competitiveness of Regions , 2014 .

[64]  Robert Huggins,et al.  Regional Competitive Intelligence: Benchmarking and Policy-making , 2010 .

[65]  Z. Griliches.  Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: a Survey , 1990 .

[66]  Nalini Ratnasiri.  Knowledge-based development , 2007 .

[67]  Stan Lipovetsky,et al.  Latent Variable Models and Factor Analysis , 2001, Technometrics.

[68]  James D. Adams,et al.  Fundamental Stocks of Knowledge and Productivity Growth , 1990, Journal of Political Economy.