Project A2 – Collaborative Research Centre "Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition" (SFB 1199)

In debates on knowledge-based regional development, geographical proximity to cooperation partners is considered to be a key competitive advantage for innovative firms. In Germany, however, there are numerous companies outside agglomerations which, despite the supposed lack of geographical proximity to partners, are world market leaders in a specific technology area or product segment.

In the course of the project, the spatial practices of these highly innovative and internationally operating companies were analysed in a comparative perspective. Specifically, spatialization processes in the context of innovation activities of these companies were researched and it was asked how companies identify sources of knowledge and how they make these sources available.

It could be shown that companies act according to similar principles regardless of their spatial location and use identical spatial formats for knowledge generation. A comparison of world market leaders located inside and outside of agglomerations shows no significant differences with regard to their collaborations. Both groups are comparable with regard to information sources used, the spatial location of their partners as well as the innovation projects they carry out. Furthermore, no particular relevance of regional forms of cooperation could be proven, which is surprising especially against the background of the debates on territorial innovation models. 

The results feed into current debates in economic geography, which highlight both options of intra-firm innovation activities, which are less based on interaction, as well as different types and formats of knowledge transfer over distance as being important for innovative enterprises. In light of the project results, the relevance of the link between innovation and agglomeration - at least for the German context - must be regarded and questioned as predominantly discursively charged.

During the second funding period of the collaborative research centre (SFB 1199), a follow-up project investigates innovative technology enterprises at unusual locations in Central Asia and Africa.

Results/Publications

Vonnahme, Lukas / Lang, Thilo (2022): Hidden Champions in rural Germany: Innovation strategies to compete in global markets. In: Leick, Birgit; Gretzinger, Susanne; Makkonen, Teemu (eds.): The Rural Enterprise Economy. Routledge. 35-52;  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003034001 

Vonnahme, Lukas (2021): Knowledge creation and innovation beyond agglomeration: The case of Hidden Champions in Germany. Universität Leipzig, Dissertation, 236 pp., https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-756794 

Lang, Thilo / Vonnahme, Lukas (2020): Hidden Champions in ländlichen Räumen – zur Bedeutung mittelständischer Unternehmen für Kleinstädte in peripheren Lagen. In: Krajewski, Christian und Claus-Christian (Hrsg.): Land in Sicht – Ländliche Räume in Deutschland zwischen Prosperität und Peripherisierung, S. 214-227; www.bpb.de/shop/buecher/schriftenreihe/313517/land-in-sicht/ 

Görmar, Franziska / Lang, Thilo (2019): Acting Peripheries: An Introduction.  ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 2019, 18(2): 486-495

Graffenberger, Martin / Vonnahme, Lukas / Brachert, Matthias / Lang, Thilo (2019): Broadening perspectives: innovation outside of agglomerations. In: Knut Koschatzky, Thomas Stahlecker (eds.) Innovation based regional change in Europe: Chances, risks and policy implications. Karlsruhe 2019, 47-68.

Graffenberger, Martin / Lukas Vonnahme (2019): Questioning the ‘Periphery Label’ in Economic Geography. Entrepreneurial Action and Innovation in South Estonia. ACME – An International Journal for Critical Geographies 18 (2), 529-550. Full text

Graffenberger, Martin / Vonnahme, Lukas / Brachert, Matthias / Lang, Thilo (2019): Broadening perspectives: innovation outside of agglomerations. In: Innovation-based regional change in Europe: chances, risks and policy implications. Stuttgart: Fraunhofer Verlag, S. 47–68. Full text

Lang, Görmar / Graffenberger, Vonnahme (2019): Hidden Champions und Stadtentwicklung. Die wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung innovativer Unternehmen für Kleinstädte in peripherer Lage. BBSR Sonderveröffentlichung, Bonn, 63 Seiten

Lang, Thilo / Graffenberger, Martin / Vonnahme, Lukas (2019): Innovationsräume. De Gruyter. 36 S.

Vonnahme, Lukas / Lang, Thilo (2019): Peripher global: Ergebnisse der standardisierten Befragung zu Innovationsaktivitäten von Weltmarktführern in Deutschland. (Working paper series des SFB 1199 an der Universität Leipzig, Nr. 18). Full text

Vonnahme, Lukas; Lang, Thilo (2019): Peripher global: Ergebnisse der standardisierten Befragung zu Innovationsaktivitäten von Weltmarktführern in Deutschland. Leipzig. (=Working paper series des SFB 1199 an der Universität Leipzig, Nr. 18).

Vonnahme, Lukas / Graffenberger, Martin / Görmar, Franziska / Lang, Thilo (2018): Kaum beachtet, gemeinsam stark – Versteckte Potenziale von Kleinstädten mit Hidden Champions. In: Informationen zur Raumentwicklung 6/2018, S. 38–49. Full text

Lang, Thilo (2018): Peripherie / Peripherisierung. In: Akademie für Raumforschung und Landesplanung (Hrsg.): Handwörterbuch der Stadt‐ und Raumentwicklung. Hannover,1687-1692.

Vonnahme, Lukas / Lang, Thilo (2017): Re-thinking territorial innovation: World market leaders outside of agglomerations. (Working paper series des SFB 1199 an der Universität Leipzig, Nr. 6). Full text

Ermann, Ulrich / Lang, Thilo / Megerle, Marcel (2012): Weltmarktführer abseits der Agglomerationsräume. In: Nationalatlas aktuell 6 (10.2012) 11 (18.10.2012). URL: http://aktuell.nationalatlas.de/weltmarktfuehrer-11_10-2012-0-html/