| 1. |
- Li, Wenjuan, 1963-
(författare)
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Firms and people in place : driving forces for regional growth
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is to quantitatively study the driving forces and mechanisms for regional growth from an endogenous and exogenous perspective and reveal the most important factors contributing to regional growth, by focusing on three aspects: local labour market, the supply side and the demand side of the labour market. The thesis is designed to use Swedish micro register data to develop spatial models with higher spatial resolution. It was found that endogenous factors are important and probably explain about at least one third of total regional economic growth. Among the endogenous factors, localised demographic composition, labour force and labour market, firms, and business environment have the strongest influence on regional economic growth. The findings from the Swedish context were briefly compared to China’s economic growth in the last fifty years. The thesis consists of three related papers. The first paper studied the endogenous and exogenous factors in 108 Swedish LA regions during the 1990s. By using the SNI92 code, individual longitudinal data and an improved shift-share analysis method, it was found that the endogenous factor is important for regional economic growth because it is able to accelerate, decelerate or reverse the impact from exogenous factors during the period studied. The second paper studied regional growth from the supply side of the labour market by focusing on population redistribution and place attractiveness. A ‘floating grid’ approach was developed to understand the factors shaping place attractiveness. The approach disregards administration zones by focusing on a small spatial unit—vicinity which is one kilometre square. Each unit has a unique set of surrounding zones that are local area and hinterland. By constructing spatial models, the total explained variance in place attractiveness was decomposed into partial explanatory effects that are assigned for physical attraction, demographic, service and labour market factors over the spatial scales. The finding is that the spatial scale of vicinity and demographic factors contribute most to place attractiveness. The third paper studied regional growth from the demand side of the labour market by focusing on workplace and its economic performance. The ‘floating grid’ approach was once more applied while the basic analysis unit is a constructed workplace that holds working-square, local area and hinterland as surrounding zones. The economic performance of the workplace was attributed to external demand, local demand, business environment and labour force factors over different spatial scales. A method was developed to quantitatively identify intervals of partial explanatory effects that are components of the total explained variance. It was found that working-square and labour force factors contribute most to workplace economic performance.
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| 2. |
- Adjei, Evans Korang, 1984-
(författare)
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Relatedness through kinship : the importance of family co-occurrence for firm performance
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is to analyse the effects of family co-occurrence and past familial relationships (inherited entrepreneurial abilities) on firm performance. This aim is motivated by the contemporary arguments that social relations (e.g. family ties) are important in the analysis of today’s space economy. In most studies, the point of departure in the analysis of firm performance has often been to analyse and examine the cognitive resources available in a firm, as well as a firm’s geographical closeness to related firms and industries. However, this argument has been challenged, and it is further suggested that social relations, and for that matter family relations (or family co-occurrence), may be important in the analysis of firm performance. To test this argument, the analysis is based on longitudinal data comprising various register data on the Swedish population and firms.To examine the aim, three different but related questions were analysed: the first analysed the prevalence of family employment across different regions and how this affects firm performance; the second examined the relationship between entrepreneurs’ familial relations (co-occurrence of different family relations) and skill variety, on one hand, and how the relationship affects firm performance on the other; and the third examined the effects of present family relations (family firms) and entrepreneurial capital (EC, past family relations) on the survival and growth of new entrants. Questions 1 and 2 were explored by applying simple ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects (FE) regressions, respectively. Question 3 was explored by employing an event-history analysis (survival analysis) to determine the time to exit and OLS for the growth analysis.The results show that family co-occurrence in firms (be they family or non-family firms) positively affect labour productivity. At the same time, the results show that some specific family relationships are more important than others in terms of impacting labour productivity. Moreover, the results indicate that family firms, in particular, benefit the most from having family members employed in the firm, especially when this involves family relationships such as couples and/or children. The co-occurrence of couples and/or children in family firms moderates the negative impacts of similarities and unrelatedness of skills on productivity. The results show that the impacts of family co-occurrence are greater in smaller specialized regions than diverse and larger ones. Thus, while the family positively correlates with firm performance, this is mainly the case in specialized regions. The results further show that family firms are not more resilient, as the literature argues; but this effect is confounded by EC. The implication is that it is not family firms per se that are resilient but rather firms with entrepreneurial experience from parents, especially in rural regions; meanwhile, family firms create more jobs. However, the analysis could not identify a clear regional effect of the role of family firm on job creation. In this sense, the present thesis provides important insight into why the family constitutes an important part of the firm production setup. The findings show that it is necessary and important to consider the family, and family firms, in the larger regional development framework. Moreover, while reflecting on the uniqueness of the family as a social group whose shared identity and mutual trust can enhance firm performance and regional development, we should also not lose sight of the fact that there is a latent risk: it is not a problem—until it becomes a problem.
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| 3. |
- Brandt, Backa Fredrik, 1972-
(författare)
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Botniabanan - förväntningar i tid och rum på regional utveckling och resande
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is twofold: to analyze the effects of the expectations on the Bothnia Line on the housing market and expectations on railway use. To fulfill these aims, three questions are considered:1. To what extent is property prices influenced by the expected effects of the Bothnia Line?2. Are there differences in expectations on regional development and future journeys between residents in different locations and with different individual characteristics?3. How are trips to work affected by the expectations on the Bothnia Line and the performance of the train service according to residents in different locations?Property prices are investigated quantitatively with data delivered from Lantmäteriet. The data contains every sold property from 1994 to 2001 in the municipalities of Umeå, Nordmaling, and Örnsköldsvik. Expectations on regional development and future traveling on the Bothnia Line were investigated with two questionnaires conducted in the autumn of 2002.The empirical results from the study of property prices are clear. There are no signs of influence from the Bothnia Line on the property prices close to the railway stations or in the proximity of the railway.The empirical results from the questionnaires reveal a mixed picture of the expectations. In the municipalities located furthest away from the railway, the expectations are low. On the contrary, a large proportion (>75 %) of the residents in municipalities along the railway line believe it can be useful for the population in general when searching for new employment opportunities. This is especially true for males living in Örnsköldsvik. A significantly smaller proportion (≈25 %) believes they will use the railway themselves.One explanation to the geographic variations is that they are a result from an ongoing diffusion process. Residents in Örnsköldsvik were the first ones to have a visual image of the railway since the construction started there. As the construction continues, the expectations might increase in other locations as well. Another possibility is that people only react on word of mouth from someone that actually made a trip before they consider changing the mode of transport. If that is the case, the expectations will increase only after the opening of the railway line.With the exception of residents in Nordmaling, expectations on future journeys with the Bothnia Line are low. The low expectations on journeys on the Bothnia Line might be explained by the lack of attraction between the places along the line. They are satisfied with their present situation and cannot find any rationale to consider other alternatives. It is a different story if they are forced to consider other alternatives. The result from a stated preference study shows that if they are offered employment at another place, the majority is willing to commute.
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| 4. |
- Danley, Therese, 1986-
(författare)
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Rough starts and tough times : geographies of workers and firms in transition
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Economic change can lead to multiple and sometimes conflicting outcomes for workers, employers, and regions. At the center of economic change are the dynamic interactions among diverse workers and firms in specific labor market contexts. This thesis approached those spatial interactions from the perspective of labor market matching, where the different opportunities for workers and firms to match were investigated. This adds to the growing body of literature that seeks to understand what factors are behind the growing regional divergence in earnings and employment, and who is particularly impacted by the uneven labor market changes. To this end, the aim of this thesis was to analyze the regional patterns and outcomes for workers and firms in the labor market matching process. Four quantitative studies were conducted using data from Swedish administrative registers from 1995 to 2012. Given that the dynamics of labor market matching are complex, the studies approached the aim from different angles and for different groups of workers. In particular, the outcomes and patterns were investigated in relation to crucial periods for workers and firms, where frictions in labor market matching could potentially have particularly negative effects. The studies investigated earnings, employment, and hiring for young workers in low-paid jobs, for workers displaced by firm closures, and for new firms competing for survival. The empirical results indicate the importance of a flexible labor market that facilitates the matching process where individuals' existing competencies can be applied and developed. This is a particular challenge for workers who lose their jobs to establishment closures outside the large regions, since the results show that worse job matches and less productive re-employment opportunities are more common and can have particularly negative consequences in smaller and more peripheral regions. However, even if there are more job opportunities in larger regions, the results suggest the opportunities are not necessarily accessible to everyone. Results indicate that workers in low-wage jobs do not benefit from a boost in earnings in larger regions, which may put them in a precarious situation considering the higher cost of living in those regions. Lastly, the thesis highlights the importance of not only individual human capital in determining a job match, but also its relational dimension which captures how well different workers’ skills are matched to one another in the workplace. This was found to be associated with individual earnings recovery after plant closure and new firm survival. The findings call for policies that carefully combine supply- and demand-side approaches in economic development.
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Rikard, 1979-
(författare)
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Labour mobility and plant performance : The influence of proximity, relatedness and agglomeration
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to shed new light on the theorizations discussing the economic benefits of geographical clustering in a space economy increasingly characterized by globalization processes. This is made possible through the employment of a plant-perspective and a focus on how the relative fixity and mobility of labour influence plant performance throughout the entire Swedish economy. By means of the longitudinal micro database ASTRID, connecting attributes of individuals to features of plants and localities for the whole Swedish economy, the empirical findings indicate that both localization and urbanization economies produce significant labour market externalities and that such inter-plant linkages positively affect plant performance as compared to the partial effects of relative regional specialization and diversification. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that it is necessary both to distinguish how well the external skills retrieved via labour mobility match the existing knowledge base of plants and to determine the geographical dimension of such flows to verify the relative effect of labour market-induced externalities. Finally, it is demonstrated that whereas general urbanization is beneficial within close distance to the plant, the composition of economic activities is more influential at greater distances. In such cases the geographical dimension influences whether plants benefit from being located in similar or different local settings. In conclusion, it is argued that the circulation of labour skills, created and reproduced through the place-specific industrial setup, is crucial for understanding the mechanisms creating geographical variations in plant performance as compared to other regional conditions often proxied as relative specialization or diversification. This is because the relative fixity of labour tends to create place- and sector-specific skills which by means of their mobility in space are likely to facilitate the recombination of local skills, make the acquirement of non-local skills possible and secure sufficient affinity between economic actors by strengthening other dimensions of proximity – all aspects regarded as crucial to facilitate interactive learning processes and contribute to sustained regional growth.
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| 6. |
- Hane-Weijman, Emelie, 1984-
(författare)
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Returning to Work : geographies of Employment in Turbulent Times
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis adds to theorizations of resilience, by placing workers and employment on the center stage. This has been addressed by contextualizing gross employment changes and workers’ way back to employment after redundancy. Swedish longitudinal microdata from 1990-2010 were used. This made it possible to study employer-employee links that disappeared and appeared, and to follow redundant workers over time and space. The empirical findings conclude there are big regional differences in resilience, absorptive capacity and employment growth. The trajectories of regional net employment growth are diverging – an unequal spatial development that might become reinforced with time as the empirical results show that resilience is a path-dependent phenomenon. Moreover, industry proximity is an important factor when analyzing both regional absorptive capacity and labour matching, thus significantly affecting worker adaptability in times of turbulence.This is explained by the frictions and skill (mis)matching that arise in the labour market and in new employment positions due to industry proximities. A cohesive and diverse region is more resistant to shocks as well as adaptable in the aftermath of the crisis, while a specialized region is more sensitive and less resilient in general. In addition, a worker facing redundancy in a region where there is a big share of the same or related industries to the industry she became redundant from decreases the time to re-employment as there is a big supply of jobs that need similar skills and competences. However, there are significant differences in the mobilities of redundant workers, where some groups are more inclined to diversify into new regions and industries, while some have more invested in the industry and region. However, staying in the same industry that experienced the major lay-off means a less stable employment, but moving into unrelated industries increases the workers’ chances of experiencing skill mismatch and becoming underemployed. Finding a new job in related industries means a more stable employment and increases the chances of upward mobility. In conclusion, based on these findings, it is argued in the thesis that regional branching into related industries is a good regional resilience strategy. However, it needs to be combined with policies aiming for related labour branching as well in order to be able to reallocate skills into new parts of the economy while avoiding skill mismatch. This provides a good base for regional diversification that can result in path re-orientation and renewal.
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| 7. |
- Rataj, Marcin, 1978-
(författare)
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The Geography of Entrepreneurship : regional and individual determinants of new firm formation in Sweden
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While there is a rich and growing body of literature on both individual and regional determinants of entrepreneurship, the dominant perspective assumes that these factor play a similar role in different spatial contexts. The thesis investigates in the first place the link between firm formation and economic opportunities that might be conditional on the regional setting. That is, that do not necessarily provide universal outcomes. Investigating that link might be of particular significance for the formation and performance of new firms in peripheral and stagnating regions. Such regions may benefit the most from tailored-made and research-guided policies.To address this goal, three quantitative studies were conducted based on data from Swedish registers and other sources provided by Statistics Sweden. Each study aimed to answer key questions regarding firm formation and regional development: (1) can regional unemployment trigger a new wave of business formation, (2) how can regional characteristics compensate for a relative absence of agglomeration externalities, and (3) how may the region utilize the potential of people moving into a region (non-local entrepreneurs) to foster entrepreneurship?The results suggest that while entrepreneurial activities indeed might absorb some redundant employees during times of less favorable labour market conditions, entrepreneurial policies cannot be considered a universal and anticyclical driver of economic growth. Instead, the more acute the labour market conditions are, the lower the quality of an average start-up becomes. According to the results, human capital, social capital and entrepreneurial culture are important for the variation in start-up rates across municipalities in Sweden. Human capital and entrepreneurial culture might enhance start-up activities in a similar way in different regional contexts. Social capital, in contrast, might exert effects of different magnitude depending on other regional characteristics and can moderate the scarcity of local resources. Finally, the results show that benefits stemming from access to local networks, information or locally recognizable credibility can be diminished when more diversity is introduced into the regional economy.Overall, the results suggest that regional disadvantages might be offset at least to some degree by other types of regional assets. These findings calls for more flexibility in our thinking about entrepreneurship agendas as a part of regional development that do not need to deal with all regional challenges, but instead focus on some regional advantages and how they can compensate for a lack of resources that are abundant in other regions.
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| 8. |
- Östbring, Lisa, 1980-
(författare)
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Relatedness put in place : on the effects of proximity on firm performance
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis contributes to recent theorizations in economic geography on the effects of proximity on firm competitiveness. One of the great challenge in the contemporary economy is for firms to remain competitive. Their innovative ability is highly dependent on the knowledge they possess and their ability to acquire new knowledge. It is argued that a relational proximity between individuals reduces uncertainty and offers a joint platform for communication and learning. Therefore, does this thesis apply a micro-perspective in which the labor force and the knowledge composition within plants is examined. The aim is pursued by exploring the interrelationship between different types of proximity in the labor force and plant performance. The proximity dimensions under scrutiny are; the cognitive-, the organizational-, and the geographical proximity dimension.The three empirical papers in the thesis are based on longitudinal micro-data from the database ASTRID. The database connects detailed socio-economic data of individuals to features of plants and firms in the entire Swedish economy. The empirical findings suggest that the different types of proximities are interdependent with regard to learning in firms. The interdependence is manifested through the variable impact on plant performance that a given distance in one dimension has, depending on what other type of proximity is accounted for at the plant. It is further found that the proximity dimensions have conditional effects on learning and innovation in firms. The empirical findings also indicate that the circumstances under which learning and knowledge application take place, vary between capital-intensive and labor-intensive sectors. Moreover, it is found that relatedness in the cognitive dimension is not unambiguously positive for interactive learning and innovativeness. Similarity in one dimension and unrelatedness in the cognitive dimension, has a significantly stronger impact on interactive learning than simply having relatedness in the cognitive dimension. It therefore seems as if the combined distance of several proximity dimensions should be taken into account when estimating the innovative power of a firm or industry.When the empirical findings are considered together it is evident that the local environment generates relational proximity between agents through formal- and informal networks. This proximity reproduces and rejuvenates the localized capabilities by allowing for the combination of heterogeneous pieces of knowledge in firms through local unrelated labor inflow. In conclusion, time and place are the paramount dimensions that shape the micro-dynamics of knowledge generation and innovation in firms.
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