This paper discusses how the results of simulation models can be made more reliable and the method of simulating therefore more widely applicable. We suggested to calibrate simulation models empirically and developed a methodology based on Critical Realism in order to so. We suggested combining...

This paper studies the frequency of observing a certain number of firms or employees in a region for a given industry. Various predictions for these frequencies are deduced from theoretical considerations. Then, the empirical distributions of 198 industries in Germany are analysed. It is found...

Academic inventions have to be transferred to industry to become an innovation. Scientists face multiple options for this transfer, from informal knowledge transfers to patents, licences, and spin-offs. These transfer channels require different efforts and inhibit different degrees of...

Measuring the innovation performance of regions or nations has been repeatedly done in the literature. What is missing in the literature is a discussion of what innovation performance of a region means. How do regions or nations contribute really to the innovation output of firms? And how...

Universities and research institutes are seen as important drivers of the regional economy. Their impact on regional entrepreneurial and innovation activity is well documented. On the other hand, their influence on regional employment growth is less researched. This paper provides an extensive...

Spatial proximity is assumed in the literature to be a prerequisite and trigger for cooperation and, subsequently, innovation. This paper examines conceptually the role of proximity between actors for cooperation activities. Using theories and findings from social psychology and combining them...

We present a new statistical method that describes the localization patterns of industries in a continuous space. The proposed method does not divide space into subunits whereby it is not affected by the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). Our method fulfils all five criteria for a spatial...

In this paper the relationship between firm growth and external knowledge sources, such as related firms and universities, is studied. The spatial characteristics of these relationships are examined by geolocating firms into a more realistic relational space using travel time distances and using...