This report presents a case study of the role of a large R&D intensive multinational company for a small open economy. The case study examines the role of AstraZeneca in the Swedish economy, i.e. an economy dominated by multinational companies. The purpose of the report is to analyze the...

During the 1980s many economists started to use the term globalisation as a catchword for an increased interaction between countries in world trade. The literature does not provide a clear definition of globalisation. We set up a number of criteria and formulate hypotheses about globalisation...

A major characteristic of the economic development in European and North America during the past 10-15 years is a fast expansion of the producer-service sector. This paper considers the location dynamics of two categories of firms: contact-intensive producer-service suppliers and other firms,...

This paper develops a framework to appreciate the observed heterogeneity of firm size distributions and the entry and exit of products and firms associated with it. It is based on a model where new products are introduced by innovating firms in a quasi-temporal setting of monopolistic...

This paper outlines a set of fundamental changes in the global economy that have altered the nature of the innovation process, brought about global challenges, and stimulated cross border phenomena and network formation responses. These changes has brought about an increase of the demand for...

The paper focuses on challenges and potentials for policy in the presence of fundamental change processes that influence the long-term evolution of regions. The perspective in the paper implies that policy can be viewed as ‘management of change’. We present a conceptual model for...

This paper assesses the contribution to productivity of firms’ internal innovation efforts and spatially-specific factors. A dynamic GMM-estimator is applied to a panel of close to 3,000 firms located in 81 Swedish regions and observed over a 10-year period. The magnitude of benefits from the...

Firms display persistent differences as regards both internal and external characteristics, and these differences correspond to asymmetries in the performance of firms with regard to productivity level and growth as well as innovativeness. This paper focuses on one internal characteristic and...

The importance of metropolitan regions as national growth and development engines, and in particular as driving forces in national as well as global innovation processes is well recognized. This paper highlights the role of metropolitan regions in different contexts in order to lay a foundation...

This paper focuses on the concept of knowledge and examines models depicting and explaining the role of knowledge in regional development and provides an assessment of empirical studies of how knowledge affects growth and development in functional regions. For this paper it is crucial to...