Spatialization Patterns of Translocal Knowledge Networks: Conceptual Understandings and Empirical Evidences of Erlangen and Frankfurt/Oder

Abstract

In this paper, we outline a perspective on the spatial levels of the organization of high-tech innovations. By contrasting two innovation networks in very different socio-economic regional set-ups-one prospering like in Erlangen, one stagnating like in Frankfurt/Oder-the article presents empirical results of different spatial knowledge formations. We will apply a relational notion of space on the way firm-based strategies are able to acquire external knowledge. The main question is: how do companies in high-tech innovation contexts deal with difficulties of acquiring and organizing external knowledge? Empirically driven results reflect on the possibilities and restrictions of translocal knowledge-transfer with respect to distinct regional context conditions. The point of departure of this article is Faulconbridge's attempt to conceptualize translocal knowledge networks "stretching beyond a local fix" (Faulconbridge, J. (2006) Stretching tacit knowledge beyond a local fix? Global spaces of learning in advertising professional service firms, Journal of Economic Geography, 6, pp. 517-540). Taking into account that innovation-oriented networks extend beyond the firm, the city's administrative ground, person-based social interaction abilities, we will argue for new conceptual understanding of the notion of space as introduced by Coe and Bunnell ((2003) "Spatializing" knowledge communities: Towards a conceptualization of transnational innovation networks, Global Networks, 3(4), pp. 437 -456). Knowledge workers and their communities are considered to represent the desired and much needed contextual "innovation climate" in urban-regional settings. At the same time, these "long-distance-connections" are of great importance for gaining access to different knowledge forms and expertise. So this paper starts with the assumption, that "learning at a distance" can be as important-and sometimes even more important-as local face-to-face contact when it comes to the question, how to generate new ideas and innovation in the field of high-techproduction. Two contrasting cases within the high-tech sector (Erlangen and Frankfurt/Oder) allow for drawing subordinate conclusions to new forms of gaining external knowledge.

Translocality: Concepts, Applications and Emerging Research Perspectives

“…Although movement of people is of prime concern in many studies, this is but one aspect of translocality. The concept also refers to material flows, such as those of remittances (Long ) and goods (Verne ), and symbolic flows such as movements of styles, ideas, images and symbols (Lange and Büttner ; Ma ; Reetz ). One aspect of this latter dimension of translocality is the visualisation and imagining of linkages between places, what Brickell and Datta (, p. 18) refer to as “translocal imagination.”…”

“…As such, translocality is also applied to study the use of media and the circulation of knowledge and ideas in globally operating networks. Focusing on the spatial organisation of high‐tech innovation in Germany, Lange and Büttner (), use a translocal approach to map out the possibilities for and restrictions on translocal knowledge‐transfers that result in differential spatial knowledge formations. The flow of information, ideas and opinions through the internet and their influence on identity formation, is taken up by Gan (), who shows how young mothers in China use online parenting forums to construct and negotiate their new identities as mothers alongside their identities as career women.…”

Aligning social networks and co-designed visions to foster systemic innovation in the Alps

“…Transnational collaboration has been shown to provide access to resources that can help stimulate sustainability-oriented innovation (Wieczorek et al 2015 ; Wieczorek 2018 ). Transnational networks can be very effective in promoting the exchange of non-redundant, often context-specific, knowledge that support innovation in regions, cities, and organisations (Lange and Buttner 2010 ; de Noni et al 2018 ; Lee 2018 ). This can make the difference in achieving systemic innovation in peripheral regions, like Haute-Romanche.…”

Entrepreneurial ecosystems as a bridging concept? A conceptual contribution to the debate on entrepreneurship and regional development

“…Economic geography literature has been addressing the fetishism of spatial fixity for better understanding the temporal diversity and dynamic nature of spatial, cultural, and institutional contexts of entrepreneurial processes (Faulconbridge, 2006; Knoben & Oerlemans, 2006; Kuebart & Ibert, 2019; Lange & Büttner, 2010). However, time‐geographical perspectives (Hägerstrand, 1967, 1975) and more recent contributions (Ibert, 2010; Ibert, Hautala, & Jauhiainen, 2015; Lange & Schüßler, 2018; Törnqvist, 2004) on procedural perspectives of the temporal nature of spatial processes emphasise that, for example, economic geography still needs to better understand the interplay of multiple social and economic processes in place and space.…”