Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

This study systematically analyzes the impacts of supplier–client and technological linkages with foreign firms on domestic firm technological innovation, based on a unique dataset that was collected through a survey of over 600 firms in China's information and communication technology industry. The results revealed that Chinese firms were engaged in extensive supplier–client relationships with foreign firms, although their technological collaborations with foreign firms were very limited. It was found that firm innovation benefited significantly from technological relationships with foreign firms. However, the results also suggest that, although export/import did contribute to domestic firm innovation, supplier–client relationships with foreign-invested enterprises in China did not show positive effects on domestic firm innovation. The analyses further suggest that such market transactions between domestic and foreign firms helped building technological linkages between domestic firms and foreign firms. These results clearly demonstrate the value of networking in enhancing firm innovation in developing countries.

This paper analyses the spatial configurations of knowledge networks and their overlap with spatial concentrations, such as urban agglomerations. It proposes a typology of spatial concentrations in knowledge networks, and uses data from academic coauthorships in the field of optical technology and complex network analysis to show how China's regions and research organisations are located in national and international knowledge exchanges. This spatial representation and analysis of a large-scale knowledge network provide an enhanced view of the quality of network structures. Access to different pools of knowledge is unevenly distributed, allowing some regions to combine knowledge and create learning opportunities that do not stem from a spatial concentration of activity in science, but rather from their positions in the network.

Through case studies of Huawei and ZTE, this paper finds that Chinese telecom firms have followed the general pathway of technological learning of latecomers, that is: they first developed mature foreign technologies; then moved on to higher level technologies in the consolidation stage in advanced countries; and finally progressed from imitation to innovation, generating emerging technologies in mobile communication and data-network fields. The study demonstrates that (1) latecomers caught up successfully by building innovation capability from the beginning, and (2) collaboration with established partners only came later when they had higher level innovation capability. In addition, R&D globalization was an important technological strategy for Huawei and ZTE. The order and pace of development indicate that their R&D globalization strategy is to tap into global resources and markets that would otherwise be unavailable to latecomers. At the beginning of catching-up, unlike Korean firms in the auto, electronics, and semiconductor industries who developed mature foreign technologies by relying on technology transfer from foreign sources, Chinese telecom firms conducted in-house R&D on switch technology, because of the high cost and unavailability of the technology, their lack of understanding of foreign markets and technology, and foreign firms' interest in China's market. Further, operating in a more dynamic technological regime and a much more integrated global economic environment, Chinese firms were able to adopt some global technology strategies such as joint collaboration, participating in industrial standards organizations, and R&D globalization at a much earlier stage of their catching up than had the Korean firms, mainly to compensate for their limited initial access to global resources.

To what extent do costs of investment, exploitation, and maintenance of water networks vary in relation to density and dispersion? What are the redistributive effects of these cost structures and by what categories of consumer are they borne? Using as a case study the distribution of water in the Lausanne agglomeration, in Switzerland, we develop a methodology to assess the real costs of urban sprawl on water services. We will show that, while the costs of centrality for the equipment and maintenance of the network are high in absolute value, for neighbourhoods situated in the city centre, they are largely compensated for by the economies of scale related to density and the supply of a greater number of users. Moreover, the evaluation based on real costs underlines the impact of the neighbourhood location and the weight of dispersion: the proximity of already urbanised areas, the distance to water production plants, the elevation. Lastly, with the case of the Lausanne area we will show that the cost of urban sprawl could be directly paid by users thanks to high connection charges and could strongly attenuate redistributive effects.

This paper examines the incidence of innovation and the configuration of innovation systems in rural areas, which are viewed as possessing weak knowledge-generating subsystems. Drawing on the results of a microlevel study in rural Cumbria, North West England, the paper shows that entrepreneurs were able to access nonlocal knowledge infrastructure. Thus, the emergent actor-constructed regional innovation system stretched well beyond the confines of Cumbria. This configuration can be explained, in large part, by considering entrepreneurial origin. New arrivals (especially immigrants) demonstrated the greatest propensity to innovate, using innovation systems which cut across the regional and national boundaries. Locally born and returnee entrepreneurs demonstrated a low incidence of innovation. The paper concludes that a distinction between regional innovation systems (as macrolevel analytical units with a normative dimension) and actor-constructed regional innovation systems (as microlevel descriptive units) offers scope for the advancement of research in this field of study.

This paper examines shifts in value chain governance and upgrading in the automotive component production node of Bursa in Turkey. Component suppliers in Bursa have gained design and product-development competences, one result of which is that European and global firms have turned to the creation of modular value chains for the sourcing of components from these suppliers. This paper considers the implications of the insertion of Turkish suppliers into modular value chains on suppliers' upgrading, and reveals that, despite the diffusion of design and product-development competences to suppliers in Bursa, cutting-edge innovation activities such as marketing and branding continue to remain the domain of the lead firms. It is argued that although Turkish suppliers seem to be successful in upgrading to take on design and product-development tasks, this has been more due to the willingness of global lead firms to relinquish these functions than to the success of Turkish suppliers in encroaching upon these once core competences of their customers. It is concluded that power asymmetries in global automotive value chains continue to exist, and that lead firms continue to have a major influence on the type of upgrading strategies that are open to their suppliers.

The gradual integration of nations within our globalizing world is strongly related to the economic networks formed by multinational headquarters and their various subsidiaries located across the globe. Although the corporate reach of multinational corporations (MNCs) is clearly global, the geographical scope of their activities remains limited. Focusing on the network of ownership relations between the global Fortune 100 MNC headquarters and their subsidiaries, it is shown that global corporate activity remains unevenly distributed across the globe. Besides showing that richer countries are better connected within the global system than the poorer countries, the authors also reveal considerable differences in connectivity within the group of rich countries. Based on various determinants, these variations in network connectivity are explained.

Planning laws are usually made with good intentions, but do not always lead to good results—at least not when measured against their own goals. Since July 2008 the Netherlands has had a new planning act which aims for a plan-led system and a stronger role of the land-use plan in providing a framework for building permits—instead of these being granted through exemptions from the land-use plan—and in guiding spatial development. On the basis of quantitative data, we found that the land-use plan has become more important: more land-use plans have been adopted, both in absolute terms and relative to alternative measures. But functionally, these land-use plans are used primarily to follow and facilitate development instead of guiding it. Development control is still (inevitably) driven by development proposals. Although the paper looks at the Dutch case, an analysis into the relationship between planning law and its institutionalisation (or the lack thereof) at the local level is worthwhile for a wider audience. In our quest to understand the effects of changes in the law on the practice of development control, we use theories that look at the process of institutionalisation, especially of centrally designed formal institutions, such as legislation, that seek application at the local level, with its own (potentially conflicting) formal and informal institutions. We conclude the paper by arguing that changes in planning law are unsuccessful if they are not congruent with informal and formal institutions at the ‘street-level’ and if there is a lack of sufficient incentives to change the behaviour of local actors.

The construction of new electricity-transmission infrastructure is construed in UK energy policy documents as necessary for achieving government targets to increase low-carbon electricity provision to combat climate change and ensure long-term energy security. Siting high-voltage overhead lines and substations is publicly controversial, however, due to their potential environmental, social, and economic impacts. Also controversial are issues of governance, procedural justice, and technological choice in decision making, particularly in light of recent legislative changes to the planning of nationally significant infrastructure projects in the UK. This study uses the Q-method to assess the discourses emerging from stakeholder and local community actor responses to line siting in the context of proposed transmission network upgrades in the southwest of England to support a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset. The analysis reveals three discourses, representing divergent positions on the adequacy of existing procedures to enable community participation, trust in network operators, the kinds of system configurations (centralised versus decentralised) required to meet the challenges of climate change and energy security, and the local impacts of overhead lines. Whilst the profile of how diverse respondents loaded upon each discourse showed expected patterns, the range of positions adopted by local residents support previous studies showing the limits of the ‘NIMBY’ conceptualisation of local protest. Whilst greater information provision and more upstream citizen participation in contexts of transmission line planning is recommended to enhance public trust, the limitations of such an approach in the absence of greater clarity at the national level regarding the configuration of future energy systems is discussed.

Hardcore, or long-term derelict and vacant brownfield sites which are often contaminated, form a significant proportion of brownfield land in many cities, not only in the UK but also in other countries. The recent economic recession has placed the economic viability of such sites in jeopardy. This paper compares the approaches for bringing back hardcore brownfield sites into use in England and Japan by focusing on ten case studies in Manchester and Osaka, using an ‘agency’-based framework. The findings are set in the context of (i) national brownfield and related policy agendas; (ii) recent trends in land and property markets in both England and Japan; and (iii) city-level comparisons of brownfields in Manchester and Osaka. The research, which was conducted during 2009–10, suggests that hardcore brownfield sites have been badly affected by the recent recession in both Manchester and Osaka. Despite this, not only is there evidence that hardcore sites have been successfully regenerated in both cities, but also that the critical success factors (CSFs) operating in bringing sites back into use share a large degree of commonality. These CSFs include the presence of strong potential markets, seeing the recession as an opportunity, long-term vision, strong branding, strong partnerships, integrated development, and getting infrastructure into place. Finally, the paper outlines the policy implications of the research.