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- Börjesson Herou, Snöfrid, 1985
(author)
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Industry Dynamics and Relatedness of Knowledge: Knowledge Transfer Through Labor Mobility and Entrepreneurship in the West Swedish Textile Industry
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This PhD thesis investigates how industry dynamics are influenced by knowledge transferred through labor mobility and entrepreneurship by focusing on the role of relatedness of the knowledge. The empirical setting is the textile industry in the West Swedish region Västra Götaland, which encompasses the sub-industries Manufacturing of textiles and Wholesale and retail trade of textiles. For the purpose of the thesis, quantitative methods are applied, where linked employee–employer data in Sweden are used for the period 1990–2014. The thesis finds that co-location alone does not explain the patterns of knowledge transfer through labor mobility in the textile industry—instead, the relatedness of knowledge (reflecting cognitive proximity) is also influential. The influence of relatedness of knowledge is also shown for the productivity of the knowledge that is sourced as well as for entrepreneurial performance. To study productive knowledge sourcing, the influence of the workers’ industry experience is investigated, whereas to study entrepreneurial performance, the way the entrepreneur’s industry experience influences the survival chances of the venture is investigated. Both studies find that the role of relatedness of the knowledge, as indicated by individuals’ industry experience, differs between Manufacturing of textiles and Wholesale and retail trade of textiles. Knowledge from related industries is comparatively more important in the former than in the latter, whereas knowledge that originates from the same sub-industry is especially beneficial in the latter. An important additional aspect is that the relative usefulness of knowledge from related industries differs somewhat between the studies. The analysis discusses these observed differences between Manufacturing of textiles and Wholesale and retail trade of textiles by relating them to different knowledge requirements that are likely to be prevalent in the different industry life-cycle phases the two sub- industries of the textile industry were subject to. The thesis proposes that future research should take industry life-cycle phases into account as well as distinguish between different sources of knowledge, firms, and outcomes when investigating the role of relatedness of knowledge for development of firms, industries, and the economy at large.
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- Börjesson Herou, Snöfrid, 1985
(author)
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Influence of geographical proximity on labor-mobility in the renewing textile industry in West-Sweden: A relatedness approach
- 2017
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In: DRUID Academy conference, Odense, 18-20 January 2017.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- State-of-the-art. Geographical proximity has traditionally been put forth as highly important for knowledge transfer due to the fact that it is easier to meet and exchange knowledge with others that are in close proximity to one self. In addition, being co-located, agents can more easily, and spontaneously, access the local communication network and take part of the ‘local buzz’ (Bathelt, Malmberg, and Maskell, 2004). However, recently it has been argued that the importance of geographical proximity has been exaggerated in the literature (Morgan, 2004) and that there are other types of proximities that are more important for knowledge transfer. Researchers especially put forth social proximity (via networks) (Breschi and Lissoni, 2001) and cognitive proximity (Boschma, 2005) as key for this. Research gap. This study particularly focuses on labor mobility. Whereas research exploring labor-mobility and its impact on firms and regions is increasing, there is still fairly little known about the underlying structures of labor mobility (Neffke, Otto, and Weyh, 2016). In addition, analyzes focusing in greater detail on how geographical proximity influences labor-mobility is of importance to the research field for bringing more clarity to the debate on the role of geographical proximity (Breschi and Lenzi, 2010). This study thereby poses the following research question: How does geographical proximity influence labor-mobility? Theoretical arguments. From a resource-based perspective knowledge resides within individuals and is said to be the most important resource of the firm (Grant, 1996). Organizations learn through their members and the recruitment of new employees is thereby an important mechanism for ingesting new knowledge into the firm (Simon, 1991). Since accessing labor is vital for firms to stimulate learning and develop new knowledge, labor-mobility is regarded as crucial mechanisms for knowledge transfer (Malmberg and Power, 2005). Understanding how labor mobility is structured and what role geographical proximity has for the mobility is important for policy-making that aims at promoting industry development and growth at the regional and national levels. Method and data. The context for this study is the textile industry in VG, for which I distinguish between and compare Manufacturing of textiles and Wholesale and retail trade of textiles. I use linked employer-employee data for the years 1990-2010, which is maintained by Statistics Sweden and accessed through the GILDA-database at the department of Economy and Society at University of Gothenburg (as part of the research area ‘Labor Mobility and Growth’). The paper presents a comparative study using descriptive statistics, a labor mobility-based relatedness approach, and correlation analysis.
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- Börjesson Herou, Snöfrid, 1985
(author)
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The influence of the entrepreneur's prior industry experience on the venture's survival: A comparative analysis on the role of relatedness in two parts of the West Swedish textile industry
- 2018
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In: DRUID18 conference, Copenhagen 11-13 June 2018.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- A large stream of literature acknowledge that entrepreneurs are guided by their prior knowledge and a fair amount of research supports the view that the venture benefits from being operated by an entrepreneur with prior experience from the focal industry. However, recent advances within evolutionary economic geography, grounded on theories on knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity, highlight the role of related knowledge in economic activities. In order to connect the literature on these topics, this paper investigates how related industry experience of the entrepreneur influences the venture’s survival. The paper presents a comparative analysis of two parts of the West Swedish textile industry that have been subject to different development paths. The findings show that ventures in these two parts of the textile industry benefit differently from having an entrepreneur with prior related knowledge, which in this case suggests that the role of relatedness differs in different phases of the industry life- cycle.
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| 5. |
- Börjesson Herou, Snöfrid, 1985
(author)
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The influence of the entrepreneur’s prior industry experience on the venture’s survival in renewal and growth: A comparative analysis on the role of relatedness in two parts of the West Swedish textile industry
- 2018
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In: DRUID Academy conference, Odense, 17-19 January 2018.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- State-of-the-art. It is widely acknowledged that the entrepreneur’s prior knowledge guides his/her future actions (Shane, 2000). Much evidence supports this in that prior experience from the same industry that the entrepreneur enters positively influences survival (Dencker et al., 2009). However, as Cohen and Levinthal (1990) and Nooteboom (2000: 70) recognize, cognitive proximity/distance comes with a “trade-off between novelty and understandability”, which means that the cognitive distance neither should be too large nor too small for knowledge transfer to result in successful knowledge recombination and innovation. This is the cornerstone of the relatedness and related variety thesis (Frenken et al., 2007) which suggests that regions with a related variety of industries are more likely to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth than regions with a high level of specialization or diversity. Research gap. Because related industries are acknowledged as important sources of knowledge, this paper aims to empirically investigate the viability of the role of related industries at the micro-level in terms of how the entrepreneur’s industry experience influences the venture’s survival chances. Research on this topic is scarce and none have (to the author’s knowledge) used a sophisticated quantitative measure for capturing relatedness. In addition, research on the role of relatedness and related variety in the economy is scarce on industry life-cycle perspectives, as to why this paper aims to contribute with more knowledge about how the role of related industry experience might differ in different phases in the industry life-cycle. Method and data. The context for this study is the textile industry in the West Swedish region Västra Götaland (VG), where it is distinguished between the sub-industries Manufacturing of textiles and Wholesale and retail trade of textiles. This study uses linked employer-employee data for the years 1990-2014, maintained by Statistics Sweden and accessed through the GILDA-database at the department of Economy and Society at University of Gothenburg (as part of the research area ‘Labor Mobility and Growth’). Survival analyses are conducted using Cox proportional hazard ratio and the covariate of interest, relatedness, is measured using a labor-mobility based approach (Neffke, Otto, and Weyh, 2017). Entries and exits of ventures are classified similar to the FAD-method by Statistics Sweden, which also is based upon calculation of labor-mobility (Andersson and Arvidsson, 2013).
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