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Projekt Druckansicht

Innovationsnetzwerke für die Regionalentwicklung - Eine agentenbasierte Simulation

Mitantragsteller Dr. Matthias Weber
Fachliche Zuordnung Wirtschaftstheorie
Förderung Förderung von 2012 bis 2015
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 214145179
 
Erstellungsjahr 2016

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

The project focused on the integration of industrial dynamics, namely the evolution of innovation networks during an industry life cycle and regional development and growth. Agent-based simulation models (ABMs) allow for such an integration which enormously increases the complexity of the analysis. Accordingly, in the project ABMs are used as the major modelling approach. They are used as a tool to disclose (plausible) causal relationships between firm strategy and the emerging networks. The analysis of network evolution serves as an instrument to test the relevance of attachment and dissolution mechanisms which are implemented in the artificial world of an ABM. ABMs can also be used to develop additional hypotheses with respect to drivers of network evolution and to discover mechanisms which have not been theorized and tested yet. In this sense, the empirical research complements agent-based simulation models and vice versa. An important finding of the modelling exercises is that the impact of regional network relationships depends on technological relationships and the distribution of technological knowledge within different regions. If technological cumulativeness is less important, interregional relationships are less crucial for single actors. If cumulativeness is strong and includes cross-fertilization of different technological fields, interregional relationships are effectively supporting the advancement of the actors’ knowledge bases. Another finding is that following a competence destroying (radical) innovation (typically in early phases of the industry life cycle), collaboration distance increases over time due to codification and diffusion of knowledge. However, collaboration is not beneficial per se if the scope or scale of research activities distract the agents so much that they fail to gain sufficient expertise. In these cases, narrow in-house R&D may be beneficial over broad collaborative R&D. Cooperation transaction costs are to be expected, distorting the beneficial effects of knowledge sharing. The design of the agent-based models of innovation networks and their role for regional development were informed by insights from the various empirical studies of innovation networks: For the networks that have been reconstructed from publicly funded R&D projects in the German automotive industry, e.g. structural as well as individual and dyadic covariates are relevant drivers: The formation of triadic structures could be observed; spatial proximity between firms increases the propensity to cooperate as well as experience; firms with high levels of absorptive capacity tend to be more often involved in networks. Internal R&D has not become obsolete but is a prerequisite to benefit from sources of collective knowledge. Furthermore, location decisions matter because in later stages of the industry life cycle, there is a preference for spatially co-located partners. Consequently, re-location or the opening of a subsidiary in a region where the respective knowledge is bound can be an option for a firm which seeks to gain access to a specific network or specific knowledge-base. Clusters might emerge from this behavior. Besides the geographical distance also the specific impact of technological distances matters: The preference to select partners that have a somewhat similar knowledge-base indicates that new knowledge should be related to the existing knowledge which makes it easier to be understood. Finally, firm size needs to be considered in the simulation models: Typically, large and established firms have more available resources to be informed about subsidies as well as experience to successfully apply for funds, to lobby or to pay consultants. In contrast, small firms are typically the envisaged target of innovation support initiatives. However, the analysis of the automotive network shows that firm size is not a significant factor for the cooperation partner selection.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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