The Canadian Journal of Regional Science 

About: The Canadian Journal of Regional Science is an academic journal published by Consortium Erudit. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Metropolitan area. It has an ISSN identifier of 0705-4580. Over the lifetime, 317 publications have been published receiving 3380 citations. The journal is also known as: Revue canadienne des sciences régionales.

Building Regional Innovation Systems: Is Endogenous Industrial Development Possible in the Global Economy?

Abstract: Globalisation: A Challenge for Local Industrial Policy Economic globalisation refers to the shift of the world economy towards an increasingly supranational functional integration co-ordinated by transnational corporations (TNCs) (Dicken et al 1997). In those sectors where these tendencies are strongest (such as the automotive industry and electronics), globalisation has led to a steadily increased influence of TNCs over national industries. In part, this takes place through corporations establishing or buying firms in different areas of the world, and in part through the linking of formally independent companies to TNCs as subcontractors and suppliers. In this way large numbers of firms are linked together in networks that are directly or indirectly co-ordinated by the headquarters of TNCs. The expressed or implied message of many contemporary analyses of globalisation is that the balance of power in the economy is tipped in favour of TNCs at the expense of nations and regions, as more and more firms and regional production systems are incorporated in global commodity chains (Storper 1997). Decisions on, amongst other things, downsizing, closure and relocation of firms, are taken directly (for plants owned by TNCs) and indirectly (for suppliers) in remote headquarters and not by local entrepreneurs. Thus, as firms are tied into evolving international organisation structures, the continual reorganisation of global firms has the capacity to dramatically reshape the fortunes of regional economies. This is further emphasised by the fact that economic activity is perceived as increasingly placeless and de-territorial ised. The potential of endogenous growth based on regional resources and trust-based local relations is then seen to be threatened by the globalisation tendencies. This article aims to analyse some of the possibilities and barriers that local communities face in promoting endogenous industrial development in an increasingly globalised economy. The analysis is based on the view that regionalisation is an important aspect of the globalisation trend and, therefore, a crucial economic trend in the international economy. In the second section, some theoretical issues are introduced and some policy background and dilemmas set out. In the third section, a description is given of the 1997 decision by the large transnational corporation, Ericsson, to move one of its development departments from a small Norwegian town to the Oslo region. The reversal of this decision caused by strong opposition from employees and the local area in general is then analysed. This example illustrates some threats that globalisation trends exert on the local economic development potential, as well as opportunities for economic development which it can create in certain areas. Finally, in the concludi ng section, the discussion departs from the 'Ericsson case' and discusses, from the perspective of regional innovation systems, development policies aimed at embedding units of TNC in local areas. The section also discusses how the case study may advance our understanding of the interplay of globalisation and regional dynamics. Regionalisation as an Aspect of Economic Globalisation Regionalisation is increasingly seen as one important aspect of the globalisation trend. Regionalisation refers to economic activity dependent on resources that are specific to individual places (Storper 1997). The principal empirical sign of the trend towards regionalisation is the apparent growth in importance of regional clusters and innovation systems over the last decades. Since the 1970s different types of regional cluster have established a strong position in world markets for both traditional products (e.g. Third Italy) and high technology products (e.g. Silicon Valley). This has led leading researchers and policy makers to observe that 'today's economic map of the world is dominated by (...) clusters: critical masses -- in one place -- of unusual competitive success in particular field' (Porter 1998: 78). …

From Technopoles to Regional Innovation Systems: The Evolution of Localised Technology Development Policy

Abstract: This review of spatial innovation literature explores the evolution of initiatives to promote innovation by firms in local and regional settings First stimulated by the evident success of Silicon Valley, California in the 1970s and 1980s, many national and regional governments sought to encourage the formation of high technology industry complexes by earmarking budgets and special high-tech development zones, modelled, to some extent, on the pattern established by the science park at Stanford University, founded in 1951 (Castells and Hall 1994) It is well-known that Frederick Terman, later Provost and Vice-President at Stanford, was the driving force behind Stanford Industrial Park, as it was officially known, and that among his student entrepreneurs were the founders of Litton Industries, and later Hewlett and Packard, preceded as tenants on the park by Varian and succeeded by Fairchild Semiconductors Fairchild was the matrix for Intel, National Semiconductors, American Micro Devices and some forty other US chip-manufacturers from 1957, when the "Shockley eight" began to find their feet What is less well-known, perhaps, is that much of this history arose from an initial institutional borrowing and learning process in which knowledge-transfer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was crucial First, from working on a wartime military project at MIT, Terman realised that the electrical engineering programmes there and elsewhere on the east coast of the USA were far superior to those of Stanford, and he sought to emulate them But second, he also realised that university-industry relations were much stronger, particularly at MIT, which was substantially dependent on industry funding for its research and educational programmes Third, in order to build up Stanford's academic and industrial liaison strengths, technology transfer from the east coast was also a necessary condition for innovative industrial development This was assisted considerably by the foundation by William Shockley of Shockley Semiconductors near Stanford; Shockley having left Bell Laboratories in New Jersey in 1954, to capitalise on his invention of the transistor Stressing the first rather than the second part of the story fitted in well with the dominant linear model of innovation then at the forefront of understanding of the relationship between scientific progress and the commercialisation of products and processes It is also clear, with hindsight, that for the truly radical innovations of semiconductors, integrated circuits and microprocessors, technology-push was a significant impulse, at least in relation to civilian applications Even so, the role of the Department of Defence and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as users of miniaturised computers and guidance systems has perhaps been highlighted less than their role as suppliers of large-scale funding for the development of microcircuitry We still know relatively little about the nature and extent of interaction between users and technologists at the early stage of the development of these new technologies, though it has been argued that 67% of the functional source of innovation development for semiconductors was users and only 21% manufacturers (von Hippel 1988: 4) To return to the efforts by policy-makers to model high tech innovation on developments at Stanford and Silicon Valley, it is clear that most approaches have involved the idea of co-locating research centres and innovation-intensive firms in science and technology parks In some cases this has involved designating whole cities as Science Cities or Technopoles Although benefits have accrued from such plans, there is also in the literature that reviews such developments a frequent sense of disappointment that more has not been achieved In cases drawn from France and Japan, countries that have arguably proceeded furthest with the technopolis policy, a certain absence of synergies has been observed among co-located laboratories and firms …

Immigration, Entrepreneurship, and the Family: Indo-Canadian Enterprise in the Construction Industry of Greater Vancouver

Abstract: Margaret Walton-Roberts and Daniel Hiebert Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis (RIIM) wwwriimmetropolisglobalxnet Department of Geography, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Ethnic enterprise The subject of "ethnic enterprise" -- businesses operated and maintained primarily by members of immigrant and/or minority groups -- has become a significant area of research since the 1960s, when it became apparent to researchers and policy makers that the level of self-employment among ethnic minorities was higher than average (Borjas 1986) More recently, this interest has been aligned with a growing body of literature documenting the importance of self-employment and small businesses generally, (1) some of which focuses specifically on the role of ethnic entrepreneurs in industrially advanced economies (Waldinger et al 1990; Ward 1991) This research reflects a growing concern with the intersection of increased immigration in western countries, industrial restructuring, and the resurgence of the small business sector in response to this restructuring These issues resonate most clearly when considered within the context of urban economies which, in Canada as elsewhere, are the major reception areas for immigrants Even the mainstream media has become captivated with the success of minority firms (for example, Vincent 1996), and one financial institution in British Columbia has adopted a practice common among Korean immigrant groups, lending circles, which rely on internal networking, mutual support and repayment enforcement within peer groups of entrepreneurs (see Light 1972) While popular commentators generally interpret the proliferation of ethnic enterprises in favourable terms, academic literature on the subject became sharply polarized in the 1980s One "side" emphasizes the benefits of ethnic enterprise to group members, while the other focuses on the potential traps, or structural limitations these businesses can place on their owners and co-ethnic employees Bun and Hui (1995), following Auster and Aldrich (1984), comment on this "intellectual schizophrenia" and show that these opposing interpretations of ethnic enterprise are part of broader ideological debates about the nature of capitalism and the relationship between cultural and economic forces This empirical and theoretical-ideological split reached its crescendo in a brief "dialogue" between Edna Bonacich (1993) and Roger Waldinger (1993), which brought the structuralist/negative and culturalist/positive views into sharp relief While some authors continue to champion one interpretation over the other (for example, Bonacich 1994), or see the ascendance of one side (for example, Barrett et al 1996), researchers increasingly agree that ethnic entrepreneurship is associated with a complex mix of problems and benefits This form of economic organization is seen, more and more, as both emancipatory for immigrants attempting to better their standard of living but also as potentially exploitative, abusive and marginalizing (see Table 1) The particular mix of positive and negative qualities is likely to be situation-specific, depending on a variety of factors that include the pre-migratory characteristics of immigrants, the degree of openness of the adopted country's labour market, the degree of isolation of immigrant groups, and so on While we feel that the turn toward a more balanced conceptualization of ethnic entrepreneurship is helpful, we believe there is still a crucial gap in this literature -- one that can be partly understood as an outcome of the polarized debates that dominated the field during the 1970s and 1980s Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated the salience of cultural networks for immigrant and minority entrepreneurs, and the webs of economic interactions that arise within systems of ethnic loyalty However, despite Light's (1980) important findings on the role of the extended family for Chinese entrepreneurs, the issue of the family -- both nuclear and extended -- has largely been ignored in studies of ethnic enterprise …

Self-Employment among Visible Minority Immigrants, White Immigrants, and Native-Born Persons in Secondary and Tertiary Industries of Canada

Abstract: Research on this paper was supported in part by a grant from the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration, and in part by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Data used in this paper are based on the 1991 Census, Public Use Microdata File on Individuals supplied by Statistics Canada and made available to the author through the University Library of the University of Saskatchewan as a member of a consortium of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. The author is solely responsible for the use, analysis and interpretation of the census data. The comments and suggestions of the editors and anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. Peter S. Li Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration (PCERI) www.pcerii.metropolis.globalx.net Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5 The literature on immigrant business and self-employment has mainly focused on the question of why immigrant minorities tend to be successful in small business. It is generally recognized that disadvantages for minorities in the open market create the conditions for the emergence of immigrant enterprise, but ethnic solidarity also facilitates minorities to mobilize resources in such business ventures (Bonacich and Modell 1980; Waldinger et al 1990; Li 1993). More recently, research has shifted to the enclave economy linked to immigrant firms, and the debate has to do with whether the enclave economy offers returns to immigrants in the enclave similar to those in the primary labour market (Wilson and Portes 1980; Sanders and Nee 1987; Zhou 1992). Using the Public Use Microdata File on Individuals from the 1991 Census of Canada, this paper examines the patterns of self-employment among immigrants in Canada, and compares the earnings of self-employed immigrants to those who were wage workers. As well, comparisons are made between immigrants and native-born Canadians in self-employment and employment. The purpose of the analysis is to see if self-employment offers higher or lower economic returns to immigrants as compared with other immigrants in employment, as well as with the native-born population. The empirical comparison provides a basis for assessing whether immigrant and minority groups engage in self-employment because of blocked mobility or because of lucrative returns in immigrant business. Theoretical Themes on Immigrant Entrepreneurship Two themes have appeared in the literature regarding the emergence and development of immigrant business. The first one has to do with whether cultural factors internal to ethnic and immigrant communities, or external forces in the host society which hamper minorities' life chances, best explain why ethnic entrepreurship develops. Advocates of what came to be known as the blocked mobility thesis argue that discrimination and racial barriers restricted the opportunities of minority immigrants in the open market, and forced them into the ethnic business as a means of survival (Li 1982, 1998). Minority business thrived because of its tendency to provide services that filled a status gap in society and consequently posed no threat to the dominant group (Blalock 1967; Rinder 1958-59). Proponents of the transplanted cultural perspective however, stress the internal solidarity of immigrant communities in terms of traditional values and kinship organization as grounds for their business success (Light 1972; Goldberg 1985; Cummings 1980). There are now some general agreements that those disadvantaged in the wage labour market tend to resort to entrepreneurship, and that cultural endowment also facilitates resource mobilization in business development (Bonacich and Modell 1980; Light and Bonacich 1988; Ward and Jenkins 1984; Waldinger et al 1990; Light and Rosenstein 1995). The thrust of this theme is that immigrant entrepreneurship is a strategy of self-preservation in the face of unfavourable market conditions. …

From Regional Development to Local Development: On the Life, Death and Rebirth (?) of Regional Science as a Policy Relevant Science

Abstract: In the following paragraphs, I shall attempt to describe briefly how and why regional science, both as a field of study and a policy science, has changed since its founding in the 1950s. Regional Science has gone through a period of profound change in recent years--some would say through a period of crisis and decline. The term "Regional Science" is used here in a generic sense to cover the broad range of social science inquiry devoted to issues of regional development in various forms. The analysis that follows is in part a personal journey, influenced by the author's personal experience, first as a student of regional science at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s, and after that, as a practitioner and scholar of regional economic development in Canada and, more recently, in Latin America. (1) However, before beginning, let me define what I mean by regional economic development and region al development policy. In my arguments below, I make an implicit distinction between regional development and regional equity or interregional income transfers. Regional development, as used here, refers to the capacity of a region to produce (and sell) goods and services, and thus the capacity of its inhabitants to earn income. Regional development disparities thus refer to differences among regions in their capacity to provide earned income opportunities to their inhabitants. Regional development policies seek to reduce such disparities, essentially by seeking to promote increased development in lagging regions. Interregional income transfers, on the other hand, can reduce income disparities (a pure equity objective) but will not necessarily reduce regional development disparities. From a policy perspective, it is chiefly the latter which is addressed in this essay. The Birth of Regional Science Regional Science, as a distinct field of study, has gone through many lives since its founding in the United States in the 1950s with Walter Isard as its father. The roots of regional science go back to Europe, especially Germany (Polese 1995), where most of the pioneers of early classical location theory were born (such as Christaller, Losch, Von Thunen and Weber). Much early work in what was to become the field of regional science, most notably Isard (1956), may be seen as attempts to introduce the German spatial economic tradition, Raum wirtschaft, into North America and the larger English-speaking world. Ponsard (1955, 1958) tried to do very much the same thing for the French-speaking world, but without attempting to create a separate field of inquiry. It is important to recall that regional science, although a European transplant (like so many post-war immigrants), grew up in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. It is also of some consequence that its early parents were economists. The effects are visible at various levels. The post-war period in the United States was an era of unbridled optimism. Economic growth was strong and seemingly unending. The American Way of Life was the envy of the world. This was also the golden age of Keynesian economics. Whether called "fine tuning" (in its U.S. version) or planification indicative in France, most economists were confident that national economies could be wisely managed and recessions avoided, if only the right tools and models were applied. This newfound optimism also infected thinking about economic development. With Harrod (1939) and Domar (1946) among the principal pioneers (very much in the Keynesian tradition), a school was born promising the end of underdevelopment, again if only the right tools and models were applied. Furtado (1970), Lewis (1966) and Rostow (1960) are among the classics in that tradition. The interventionist optimism of economists was similar on both sides of the ideological divide, despite the Cold War. Indeed, many of the economic planning tools used, of which Leontieff's Input-Output framework is perhaps the prime example,were common to economists on both sides of the Iron Curtain. …