IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v33y2015i4p811-827.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organisations and regional innovative capability: the case of the chambers of commerce and industry in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Wolfgang Maennig
  • Michaela Ölschläger
  • Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz

Abstract

Spatial innovation models focus on the region and highlight the social and economic interactions of the actors as a main factor in regional innovative output. This paper examines the role of German chambers of commerce and industry (CCIs), which could be relevant for the innovation process through: (1) moderating or founding regional and local (innovative) initiatives; (2) creating and maintaining formal and informal networks; (3) building reputations and providing references; (4) providing information and advisory services; (5) conducting final examinations in vocational training; and (6) founding educational institutions. The empirical analyses show a positive impact of CCI expenditures on the number of start-ups and the number of patents, as well as a positive impact of seminar and information day participation on the number of start-ups. The results lead to the assumption that the network effect (functions 2 and 3) plays a more important role than providing pure information and advice (function 4).

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfgang Maennig & Michaela Ölschläger & Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz, 2015. "Organisations and regional innovative capability: the case of the chambers of commerce and industry in Germany," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(4), pages 811-827, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:33:y:2015:i:4:p:811-827
    DOI: 10.1068/c12201b
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c12201b
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c12201b?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. Tomi Tura & Vesa Harmaakorpi, 2005. "Social capital in building regional innovative capability," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(8), pages 1111-1125.
    2. Robert Bennett, 2008. "SME Policy Support in Britain since the 1990s: What have We Learnt?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(2), pages 375-397, April.
    3. Martina Fromhold-Eisebith, 2004. "Innovative milieu and social capital—complementary or redundant concepts of collaboration-based regional development?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(6), pages 747-765, September.
    4. Pekka Aula & Vesa Harmaakorpi, 2008. "An Innovative Milieu - A View on Regional Reputation Building: Case Study of the Lahti Urban Region," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 523-538.
    5. James Simmie, 2003. "Innovation and Urban Regions as National and International Nodes for the Transfer and Sharing of Knowledge," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 607-620.
    6. Roberta Capello & Alessandra Faggian, 2005. "Collective Learning and Relational Capital in Local Innovation Processes," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 75-87.
    7. Bennett, Robert J., 2011. "Local Business Voice: The History of Chambers of Commerce in Britain, Ireland, and Revolutionary America, 1760-2011," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199584734.
    8. Wolfgang Maennig & Michaela Olschlager, 2011. "Innovative Milieux and Regional Competitiveness: The Role of Associations and Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Germany," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(4), pages 441-452.
    9. Robert Bennett & Paul Robson, 2004. "Support Services for SMEs: Does the ‘Franchisee’ Make a Difference to the Business Link Offer?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 22(6), pages 859-880, December.
    10. Roberto P. Camagni, 1995. "The Concept Of Innovative Milieu And Its Relevance For Public Policies In European Lagging Regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 317-340, October.
    11. Peter Nijkamp & Ronald L. Moomaw & Iulia Traistaru-Siedschlag (ed.), 2006. "Entrepreneurship, Investment and Spatial Dynamics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3889.
    12. Robert J. Bennett, 1998. "Explaining the Membership of Voluntary Local Business Associations: The Example of British Chambers of Commerce," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 503-514, August.
    13. R J Bennett, 1999. "Business Associations: Their Potential Contribution to Government Policy and the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 17(5), pages 593-608, October.
    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. Till Proeger, 2020. "Knowledge Spillovers and Absorptive Capacity—Institutional Evidence from the “German Mittelstand”," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(1), pages 211-238, March.
    2. Proeger, Till, 2017. "Knowledge spillovers and absorptive capacity - institutional evidence from the 'German Mittelstand'," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 320, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics, revised 2017.
    3. Daniel Feser & Till Proeger, 2017. "Asymmetric information as a barrier to knowledge spillovers in expert markets," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 211-232, March.
    4. Liang Wang & Justin Tan, 2019. "Social Structure of Regional Entrepreneurship: The Impacts of Collective Action of Incumbents on De Novo Entrants," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(5), pages 855-879, September.
    5. Proeger, Till & Runst, Petrik, 2019. "Digitization and knowledge spillover effectiveness: Evidence from the "German Mittelstand"," ifh Working Papers 20/2019, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh).

    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. Riccardo Crescenzi & Luisa Gagliardi & Marco Percoco, 2013. "Social Capital and the Innovative Performance of Italian Provinces," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(4), pages 908-929, April.
    2. Franz Huber, 2009. "Social Capital Of Economic Clusters: Towards A Network‐Based Conception Of Social Resources," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 100(2), pages 160-170, April.
    3. Riccardo Crescenzi & Luisa Gagliardi & Marco Percoco, 2013. "The ‘Bright’ Side of Social Capital: How ‘Bridging’ Makes Italian Provinces More Innovative," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Riccardo Crescenzi & Marco Percoco (ed.), Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance, edition 127, pages 143-164, Springer.
    4. Scaringella, Laurent & Radziwon, Agnieszka, 2018. "Innovation, entrepreneurial, knowledge, and business ecosystems: Old wine in new bottles?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 59-87.
    5. Piotr Zientara, 2008. "Polish Regions in the Age of a Knowledge‐based Economy," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 60-85, March.
    6. Robert Wapshott & Oliver Mallett, 2018. "Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 750-772, June.
    7. Christian Omobhude & Shih-Hsin Chen, 2019. "The Roles and Measurements of Proximity in Sustained Technology Development: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-30, January.
    8. Liang Wang & Justin Tan, 2019. "Social Structure of Regional Entrepreneurship: The Impacts of Collective Action of Incumbents on De Novo Entrants," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(5), pages 855-879, September.
    9. Daniela-Luminita Constantin & Carmen Beatrice Pauna & Mariana Dragusin & Zizi Goschin & Constanta Bodea, 2011. "The Question of Clusters in Lagging Regions: Do They Really Make the Difference? A Case Study in Romania," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(5), pages 889-910, October.
    10. Anna Golejewska, 2012. "Rola instytucji w gospodarce opartej na wiedzy: aspekt regionalny," Working Papers of Economics of European Integration Division 1202, The Univeristy of Gdansk, Faculty of Economics, Economics of European Integration Division.
    11. Matthew Cocks, 2016. "Urban entrepreneurialism, global networks and export support: Are UK cities looking east?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 31(6), pages 690-708, September.
    12. Laura de Dominicis & Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Henri L.F. de Groot, 2013. "Regional clusters of innovative activity in Europe: are social capital and geographical proximity key determinants?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(17), pages 2325-2335, June.
    13. Elvira Cerver-Romero & João J. Ferreira & Cristina Fernandes, 2020. "A scientometric analysis of knowledge spillover research," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 780-805, June.
    14. Gurrieri, Antonia Rosa, 2008. "Knowledge network dissemination in a family-firm sector," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2380-2389, December.
    15. Roberta Capello & Giovanni Perucca, 2015. "Openness to Globalization and Regional Growth Patterns in CEE Countries: From the EU Accession to the Economic Crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 218-236, March.
    16. Allen Scott, 2006. "Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Industrial Development: Geography and the Creative Field Revisited," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 1-24, February.
    17. Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2015. "Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth: a network theory," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 103-128, June.
    18. Silviya Draganinska & Rudiger Wink, 2006. "Formal Knowledge Examination Institutions: Chance Or Threat to European Medium Tech-Nology SMEs? A Cognitive and Institutional Perspective," ERSA conference papers ersa06p404, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Franz Tödtling & Christoph Höglinger & Markus Grillitsch, 2012. "Knowledge relations and innovation from a regional perspective," Chapters, in: Roberta Capello & Tomaz Ponce Dentinho (ed.), Networks, Space and Competitiveness, chapter 5, pages 107-134, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Lyndon Murphy & Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2016. "Social capital and innovation: A comparative analysis of regional policies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(6), pages 1025-1057, September.

    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:envirc:v:33:y:2015:i:4:p:811-827. 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: .

    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.