Regional agility and upgrading in Hong Kong and the PRD

Background

Economic activities in the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) are embedded into fragmented global value chains and shaped by the spatial division of labour between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Business success in such competitive environments depends on competences and resources of firms to capitalise on both informal and formal institutions. Against this background, our project is based on the assumption that a firm can achieve a sustained competitive advantage by agile firm organisation - an organisational innovation to seize opportunities and to cope with uncertain threats in volatile markets proactively.

Major Goals

Our multidisciplinary consortium covers 1) the informality continuum of governance and institutions facilitating agile firm organisation in the GPRD, 2) the regional economic rationale of agile firm organisations, and 3) social dynamics that stabilise and smoothen regional agility. Mega-urban regions offer the best conditions for agile firm organisation due to thick input markets and distinct global-local interfaces. Agile firms are boosting mega-urban economies and have wider impacts on its social, political, and ecological development. Hence, our topic is an eminent emerging field to explain the informal dynamics of global change in mega-urban regions.

Research Team

University of Hannover, Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography

Prof. Dr. Javier Revilla Diez; email: diez(at)wigeo.uni-hannover.de
Dr. Daniel Schiller; email: schiller(at)wigeo.uni-hannover.de
M.A. FU Wenying; email: fu(at)wigeo.uni-hannover.de

The Kiel Institute of the World Economy

Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Soltwedel; email: ruediger.soltwedel(at)ifw-kiel.de
Dr. Dean Spinanger; email: dspinanger(at)googlemail.com
Dr. Dirk Dohse; email: dirk.dohse(at)ifw-kiel.de
Dipl.-Volksw. Wan-Hsin Liu; email: wan-hsin.liu(at)ifw-kiel.de

University of Gießen

Prof. Dr. Ingo Liefner; email: ingo.liefner(at)geogr.uni-giessen.de
Dr. Stefan Hennemann; email: stefan.hennemann(at)geogr.uni-giessen.de
Dipl.-Geogr. Stefan Ohm; email: stefan.ohm(at)geogr.uni-giessen.de

University of Cologne

Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas; email: f.kraas(at)uni-koeln.de
Dipl.-Geogr. Pamela Kilian; email: pamela.kilian(at)uni-koeln.de

Publications

Bickenbach, F., Liu, W. (2010): The Role of Personal Relationships for Doing Business in the GPRD, China — Evidence from Hong Kong Electronics SMEs. Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In: 1589 [online access]
Bielinsky, J., Meyer, S., Diez, J. (2009): Innovation goes east: innovation management in China. In: Performance, Ernst&Young 2, 3
Diez, J., Schiller, D., Meyer, S., Liefner, I., Brömer, C. (2008): Agile firms and their spatial organisation of business activities in the Greater Pearl River Delta. In: Die Erde 139, 3, pp. 251-269. [online access]
Kilian, P., Beisswenger, S., Xue, D. (2010): Floating or settling down? Migrant workers and mega-urban development in the Pearl River Delta, China. In: Geographische Rundschau International Edition 6, 2, pp. 50-56. [online access]
Kroll, H., Schiller, D. (2010): Establishing an interface between public sector applied research and the Chinese enterprise sector: preparing for 2020. In: Technovation 30, 2, pp. 117-129. [online access]
Liefner, I., Zeng, G. (2008): Cooperation patterns of high-tech companies in Shanghai and Beijing: accessing external knowledge sources for innovation processes. In: Erdkunde 62, 3, pp. 245-258. [online access]
Liefner, I. (2009): Spatial Disparities of Knowledge Absorption, Technological Change, and Prosperity: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence from China. In: Kochendörfer-Lucius, G., Pleskovic, B. (Eds.): Berlin Workshop Series 2009. The World Bank. Washington D.C., pp. 71-80.
Liu, W. (2009): Academia-Industry Linkages and the Role of Active Innovation Policies – Firm-level Evidence in Hong Kong. Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In: 1577 [online access]
Liu, W. (2009): Do Sources of Knowledge Transfer Matter? - A Firm-level Analysis in the PRD, China. Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In: 1578 [online access]
Liu, W. (2008): Do Active Innovation Policies Matter? – Findings from a Survey on the Hong Kong Electronics SMEs. In: 1445 [online access]
Meyer, S., Schiller, D., Diez, J. (2009): The Janus-faced economy. Hong-Kong firms as intermediaries between global customers and local producers in the electronics industry. In: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 100, 2, pp. 224-235. [online access]
Schiller, D., Meyer, S. (2008): Agile Unternehmensorganisation und Wirtschaftsnetzwerke im Perlflussdelta. In: Geographische Rundschau 60, 5, pp. 36-43.