IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v57y2020i5p996-1014.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knowledge proximity and firm innovation: A microgeographic analysis for Berlin

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Rammer

    (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Germany)

  • Jan Kinne

    (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Germany)

  • Knut Blind

    (Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

We analyse the geographic proximity of innovative firms to different types of knowledge sources in an urban environment on a microgeographic scale. Based on a comprehensive panel data set of manufacturing and service firms in the German capital city Berlin, we investigate the characteristics of firms’ knowledge environment while differentiating by the type of innovation. Geocoded firm locations at the level of individual addresses allows us to describe the knowledge environment of firms on a very fine microgeographic scale. We find that innovative firms are located in places with higher numbers of same-sector firms, more start-ups and a higher inflow of other firms. They also locate in closer proximity to universities and research institutes. These differences decay rapidly within a few metres (50–250 m), indicating a truly microgeographic scope of knowledge sources in urban environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Rammer & Jan Kinne & Knut Blind, 2020. "Knowledge proximity and firm innovation: A microgeographic analysis for Berlin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(5), pages 996-1014, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:57:y:2020:i:5:p:996-1014
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018820241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018820241
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098018820241?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2001. "Nursery Cities: Urban Diversity, Process Innovation, and the Life Cycle of Products," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1454-1477, December.
    2. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Duranton, Gilles, 2006. "Labour pooling, labour poaching, and spatial clustering," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-28, January.
    3. Jasjit Singh & Matt Marx, 2013. "Geographic Constraints on Knowledge Spillovers: Political Borders vs. Spatial Proximity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(9), pages 2056-2078, September.
    4. Klepper, Steven, 2010. "The origin and growth of industry clusters: The making of Silicon Valley and Detroit," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 15-32, January.
    5. William R. Kerr & Josh Lerner & Scott Stern, 2014. "Introduction to "Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 15"," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 15, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2010. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship," NBER Chapters, in: Cities and Entrepreneurship, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Johan P Larsson, 2017. "Non-routine activities and the within-city geography of jobs," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(8), pages 1808-1833, June.
    8. Jovanovic, Boyan & Nyarko, Yaw, 1995. "The transfer of human capital," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 19(5-7), pages 1033-1064.
    9. Feldman, Maryann P. & Audretsch, David B., 1999. "Innovation in cities:: Science-based diversity, specialization and localized competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 409-429, February.
    10. Phillip Phan & Donald S. Siegel & Mike Wright, 2016. "Science Parks and Incubators: Observations, Synthesis and Future Research," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Phillip H Phan & Sarfraz A Mian & Wadid Lamine (ed.), TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BUSINESS INCUBATION Theory • Practice • Lessons Learned, chapter 9, pages 249-272, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Martin Andersson & Johan Klaesson & Johan P. Larsson, 2016. "How Local are Spatial Density Externalities? Neighbourhood Effects in Agglomeration Economies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 1082-1095, June.
    12. Jaffe, Adam B, 1986. "Technological Opportunity and Spillovers of R&D: Evidence from Firms' Patents, Profits, and Market Value," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 984-1001, December.
    13. Kabo, Felichism W. & Cotton-Nessler, Natalie & Hwang, Yongha & Levenstein, Margaret C. & Owen-Smith, Jason, 2014. "Proximity effects on the dynamics and outcomes of scientific collaborations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1469-1485.
    14. Meric S. Gertler, 2003. "Tacit knowledge and the economic geography of context, or The undefinable tacitness of being (there)," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 75-99, January.
    15. Yasusada Murata & Ryo Nakajima & Ryosuke Okamoto & Ryuichi Tamura, 2014. "Localized Knowledge Spillovers and Patent Citations: A Distance-Based Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 967-985, December.
    16. Aaron Chatterji & Edward Glaeser & William Kerr, 2014. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 129-166.
    17. Aija Leiponen & Constance E. Helfat, 2011. "Location, Decentralization, and Knowledge Sources for Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 641-658, June.
    18. Maryann Feldman, 1999. "The New Economics Of Innovation, Spillovers And Agglomeration: Areview Of Empirical Studies," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1-2), pages 5-25.
    19. Stuart S. Rosenthal & William C. Strange, 2003. "Geography, Industrial Organization, and Agglomeration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 377-393, May.
    20. David B. Audretsch, 2003. "Innovation And Spatial Externalities," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 167-174, April.
    21. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2008. "The attenuation of human capital spillovers," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 373-389, September.
    22. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2004. "Micro-foundations of urban agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 48, pages 2063-2117, Elsevier.
    23. Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg & Rebecca Henderson, 1993. "Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 577-598.
    24. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Testing for Localization Using Micro-Geographic Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1077-1106.
    25. Boyan Jovanovic & Rafael Rob, 1989. "The Growth and Diffusion of Knowledge," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(4), pages 569-582.
    26. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    27. Fosfuri, Andrea & Ronde, Thomas, 2004. "High-tech clusters, technology spillovers, and trade secret laws," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 45-65, January.
    28. Kaiser, Ulrich & Kongsted, Hans Christian & Rønde, Thomas, 2015. "Does the mobility of R&D labor increase innovation?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 91-105.
    29. Glaeser, Edward L., 1999. "Learning in Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 254-277, September.
    30. Chris Forman & Avi Goldfarb & Shane Greenstein, 2016. "Agglomeration of Invention in the Bay Area: Not Just ICT," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 146-151, May.
    31. Wagner, Alfred, 1891. "Marshall's Principles of Economics," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 5, pages 319-338.
    32. Johan Larsson, 2014. "The neighborhood or the region? Reassessing the density–wage relationship using geocoded data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 52(2), pages 367-384, March.
    33. Agrawal, Ajay & Cockburn, Iain & Galasso, Alberto & Oettl, Alexander, 2014. "Why are some regions more innovative than others? The role of small firms in the presence of large labs," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 149-165.
    34. Audretsch, David B & Feldman, Maryann P, 1996. "R&D Spillovers and the Geography of Innovation and Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 630-640, June.
    35. Luc Anselin & Attila Varga & Zoltan Acs, 2008. "Local Geographic Spillovers Between University Research and High Technology Innovations," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 9, pages 95-121, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    36. Bruno Cassiman & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2006. "In Search of Complementarity in Innovation Strategy: Internal R& D and External Knowledge Acquisition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 68-82, January.
    37. Christian Rammer & Dirk Czarnitzki & Alfred Spielkamp, 2009. "Innovation success of non-R&D-performers: substituting technology by management in SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 35-58, June.
    38. Figueiredo, Octávio & Guimarães, Paulo & Woodward, Douglas, 2015. "Industry localization, distance decay, and knowledge spillovers: Following the patent paper trail," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 21-31.
    39. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    40. Peter Thompson, 2006. "Patent Citations and the Geography of Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from Inventor- and Examiner-added Citations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 383-388, May.
    41. Rafael Boix & José Luis Hervás-Oliver & Blanca De Miguel-Molina, 2015. "Micro-geographies of creative industries clusters in Europe: From hot spots to assemblages," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 753-772, November.
    42. Fred Gault (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14427.
    43. Mohammad Arzaghi & J. Vernon Henderson, 2008. "Networking off Madison Avenue," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(4), pages 1011-1038.
    44. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra Todd, 1998. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(2), pages 261-294.
    45. Andersson, Martin & Larsson, Johan P. & Wernberg, Joakim, 2017. "The Economic Microgeography of Diversity and Specialization," Working Paper Series 1167, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    46. Chloé Duvivier & Mario Polèse, 2018. "The great urban techno shift: Are central neighbourhoods the next silicon valleys? Evidence from three Canadian metropolitan areas," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(4), pages 1083-1111, November.
    47. Vernon Henderson, J., 2007. "Understanding knowledge spillovers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 497-508, July.
    48. Seongsoo Jang & Jinwon Kim & Max von Zedtwitz, 2017. "The importance of spatial agglomeration in product innovation: A microgeography perspective," Post-Print hal-02004347, HAL.
    49. J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), 2004. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    50. Bersch, Johannes & Gottschalk, Sandra & Müller, Bettina & Niefert, Michaela, 2014. "The Mannheim Enterprise Panel (MUP) and firm statistics for Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-104, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmet Faruk Aysan & Luis Carlos Castillo-Téllez & Dilek Demirbas & Mustafa Disli, 2021. "Foreign Trade, Education, And Innovative Performance: A Multilevel Analysis," Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking, Bank Indonesia, vol. 24(3), pages 413-440, September.
    2. Sébastien BOURDIN & Philippe JEAN-PIERRE & David PERRAIN, 2023. "European smart specialisation strategies (RIS3): catalysts for tourism innovations?," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 14, pages 13-36, November.
    3. Patrick Lehnert & Madison Dell & Uschi Backes-Gellner & Eric Bettinger, 2024. "The Effect of Postsecondary Educational Institutions on Local Economies: A Bird's-Eye View," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0210, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    4. Nigel Driffield & Jun Du & Jan Godsell & Mark Hart & Katiuscia Lavoratori & Steven Roper & Irina Surdu & Wanrong Zhang, 2021. "Understanding productivity:Organisational Capital perspectives," Working Papers 013, The Productivity Institute.
    5. Rocha, Augusto & Brown, Ross & Mawson, Suzanne, 2021. "Capturing conversations in entrepreneurial ecosystems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    6. Chenxi Liu & Zhenghong Peng & Lingbo Liu & Shixuan Li, 2023. "Innovation Networks of Science and Technology Firms: Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, June.
    7. Qingyi Chen & Qinglan Qian & Zuolin Yao & Na Yang & Junyue Tong & Yujiao Wang, 2022. "Global–Local Knowledge Spillover Strategic Coupling Network: Biopharmaceutical Industry Study of GBA, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, November.
    8. Rocha, Augusto & Brown, Ross & Mawson, Suzanne, 2022. "Reprint of: Capturing conversations in entrepreneurial ecosystems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(9).
    9. Faria, João Ricardo & Ferreira, João J. & Johnson, Ken H. & Mixon, Franklin G. & Wanke, Peter F., 2020. "Agglomeration economies and university program creation in the knowledge economy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Ubyrajara B. Dal Bello & Carla Susana da Encarnacao Marques & Octávio Sacramento, 2022. "(In)migration and entrepreneurship in rural areas: a systematic literature review," Revista de Estudios Regionales, Universidades Públicas de Andalucía, vol. 3, pages 153-185.
    11. Minming Wei & Baiyu Dong & Pingbin Jin, 2023. "Do Science Parks Promote Companies’ Innovative Performance? Micro Evidence from Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Independent Demonstration Zone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-20, May.
    12. Jan Kinne & Janna Axenbeck, 2020. "Web mining for innovation ecosystem mapping: a framework and a large-scale pilot study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2011-2041, December.
    13. Marta Ferrer-Serrano & M. Pilar Latorre-Martínez & Lucio Fuentelsaz, 2021. "The European research landscape under the Horizon 2020 Lenses: the interaction between science centers, public institutions, and industry," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 828-853, June.
    14. Jan Ženka & Luděk Krtička & Lenka Paszová & Tereza Pundová & Kateřina Rudincová & Simona Šťastná & Veronika Svetlíková & Jan Matula, 2021. "Micro-Geographies of Information and Communication Technology Firms in a Shrinking Medium-Sized Industrial City of Ostrava (Czechia)," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-26, July.
    15. Zhenshan Yang, 2023. "Human capital space: a spatial perspective of the dynamics of people and economic relationships," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    16. Rui Torres de Oliveira & Simona Gentile-Lüdecke & Sandra Figueira, 2022. "Barriers to innovation and innovation performance: the mediating role of external knowledge search in emerging economies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1953-1974, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    2. William R. Kerr & Frederic Robert-Nicoud, 2020. "Tech Clusters," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 50-76, Summer.
    3. Rammer, Christian & Kinne, Jan & Blind, Knut, 2016. "Microgeography of innovation in the city: Location patterns of innovative firms in Berlin," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-080, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:zbw:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    7. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_027 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Gilles Duranton & William R. Kerr, 2015. "The Logic of Agglomeration," Harvard Business School Working Papers 16-037, Harvard Business School.
    9. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    10. Aaron Chatterji & Edward Glaeser & William Kerr, 2014. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 129-166.
    11. Tobias Schlegel & Curdin Pfister & Dietmar Harhoff & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2022. "Innovation effects of universities of applied sciences: an assessment of regional heterogeneity," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 63-118, February.
    12. William R. Kerr & Scott Duke Kominers, 2015. "Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 877-899, October.
    13. Moretti, Enrico, 2011. "Local Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 14, pages 1237-1313, Elsevier.
    14. Diemer, Andreas & Regan, Tanner, 2022. "No inventor is an island: Social connectedness and the geography of knowledge flows in the US," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    15. Rosina Moreno & Ernest Miguélez, 2012. "A Relational Approach To The Geography Of Innovation: A Typology Of Regions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 492-516, July.
    16. Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr, 2009. "Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 623-663, September.
    17. Adelheid Holl & Bettina Peters & Christian Rammer, 2023. "Local knowledge spillovers and innovation persistence of firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 826-850, August.
    18. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 247-348, Elsevier.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Andersson, Martin & Larsson, Johan P. & Wernberg, Joakim, 2017. "The Economic Microgeography of Diversity and Specialization," Working Paper Series 1167, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    21. Martin Andersson & Johan P. Larsson, 2022. "Mysteries of the trade? Skill-specific local agglomeration economies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1538-1553, September.
    22. Andersson, Martin & Larsson, Johan P & Wernberg, Joakim, 2019. "The economic microgeography of diversity and specialization externalities – firm-level evidence from Swedish cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1385-1398.
    23. Carlino, Gerald A. & Chatterjee, Satyajit & Hunt, Robert M., 2007. "Urban density and the rate of invention," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 389-419, May.
    24. Ina Ganguli & Jeffrey Lin & Nicholas Reynolds, 2017. "The Paper Trail of Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from Patent Interferences [REVISED]," Working Papers 17-44, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:57:y:2020:i:5:p:996-1014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.