CFP: The Governance of Cross-Locality Networks as a Determinant of Local Economic Development (E&RD)

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

Call for Paper - Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
SPECIAL ISSUE: THE GOVERNANCE OF CROSS-LOCALITY NETWORKS AS A
DETERMINANT OF LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Deadline: 31st August 2006

Guest Editors
Lisa De Propris and Roger Sugden
(University of Birmingham, UK)

Context and Subject-Matter

European economic success in a 'globalised' and 'new' economy has become
increasingly linked with the capacity of particular localities to
achieve 'competitiveness', and this has coincided with growing awareness
of the potential for cross-locality networks of enterprises and other
economic actors as loci for such competitiveness.

For example, whilst literature analysing networks of small and
medium-sized enterprises has focussed on the knowledge and expertise
that is embedded in a local set of production and social interactions,
it has nevertheless recognised that networks cannot be closed entities.
A crucial factor for their sustainable development is openness - in
terms of knowledge and information exchange, innovation co-operation,
and production linkages - to competencies and resources that are absent
locally. Once this is recognised, it points towards researching various
forms of cross-locality networking, including international networking.
For example, arguments have been made for so-called 'multinational webs'
of small and medium-sized enterprises. These webs would be underpinned
by linkages between firms in different localities in different nations,
and might enable individual localities to be 'competitive' hubs in a
network of global production activities that serves all interested
parties.

Cross-locality and international linkages are also a central concern in
the economic literature on networks that has focussed on the activities
of large and especially transnational corporations. It is argued, for
example, that such firms can catalyse the competitiveness of localities
through investments that stimulate the incorporation of local 'clusters'
into transnational networks. However, one view is that the typical
transnational is centred on a headquarters, and branches out production
activities in localities across various countries according to the
specific advantages that those localities offer (including, for example,
cheap labour or low corporate tax). In this case, any perceived
'competitiveness' emerges through the top-down expansion of
transnationals' activities beyond and above localities' needs, placing
the latter on economic development trajectories that may be neither
desirable nor sustainable.

Accordingly, it is possible to conceptualise and observe diverse forms
of network, with correspondingly varied linkages and impacts. However,
this diversity has spawned considerable confusion within the academic
and policy literatures, and has constrained understanding of the
relevance of networks for local economic development. To make sense of
this confusion and overcome the constraint, it has been hypothesised
that the significant economic difference across various forms of network
is their respective modes of governance. On the one hand, for example,
hierarchical governance is associated with hub-and-spoke networks, where
processes of strategic decision-making are centred on a leading firm
that controls the production activities of all others. On the other hand
are polycentric networks of mutually dependent firms whose relationships
are based on cooperation and integration. Here, production and
investment strategic decisions are taken by individual firms in
accordance with their own objectives and those of their partner firms.
This is heterarchical governance. In between these extremes, one can
find intermediate forms of network governance.

However, the conceptual analysis of this hypothesis has been developed
out of, first, the economic theory of the firm and, second, the theory
of economic development. A principal deficiency is that this
economics-based understanding has not been fused with inputs from other
disciplines. This deficiency is currently a binding constraint on
understanding the characteristics of suitable networks, therefore on the
potential for European regions to realise their benefits. In addition,
the interface between the conceptual analysis and the empirical
investigation has been seriously lacking. Whilst there are many case
studies of networks - by productive sector and by locality - the
conceptual and empirical research have tended to proceed in parallel,
rather than in a mutually reinforcing methodology. A consequence has
been that theoretical advances on the significance of governance
processes for successful local economic development have tended neither
to feed into, nor to feed off of, research and practice on the actual
operation of cross-locality networks. Yet what also has been happening
is that the theoretical and empirical investigations have been
encountering parallel difficulties in taking their research further
forward. Moreover, one consequence is that realisable implications for
policy design and implementation, and for policy-makers, have not
therefore been sufficiently developed.

Invitation to Submit

It is in this context that it is proposed to publish a Special Edition
of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development focused on The Governance
of Cross-Locality Networks as a Determinant of Local Economic
Development. The editors hereby invite submission of papers addressing
that subject-matter.
- Submissions should be made electronically to the editors on
m.m.valania at bham.ac.uk by 31st AUGUST 2006.
- There is a strict limit of 7000 words per paper (including references
and notes). Papers must conform to the house style of Entrepreneurship
and Regional Development (see
www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/08985626.asp for details).

Source: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/tepncfp.pdf