World cities are important nodes in the global networks of knowledge-based economies. As a result of the growing complexity of knowledge creation, firms increasingly organise their activities in business networks that operate across different spatial scales. On the global scale, new information...

Studies for established market economies such as West Germany (Fritsch and Mueller, 2007), and Sweden (Andersson and Koster, 2011) have shown that regional start-up rates tend to show a relatively high level of persistence and path dependency over periods of 10-15 years. One main reason for this...

This paper investigates the impact of new firms' quality on the magnitude of their employment effects. Our results clearly show that the quality of start-ups, measured by their affiliation to sectors and innovative industries, strongly influences the direct and the overall employment...

The knowledge economy plays a key role in the spatial development of cities and towns. Options of flexible spatial organization of company locations have influenced business strategies and decision-making in choosing locations. This process establishes complex network economies in which...

We assume that the territory of Germany is experiencing a reorganisation of functional division of labour in favour of the knowledge economy. New forms of network economies and functional differentiation between cities and towns can be observed. The increasing importance of emerging network...

We investigate the effects that regional start-up activity has on employment in new and in incumbent businesses. The analysis is performed for West German regions over the 1987-2002 period. It shows that the effects of new businesses on employment in the incumbents are significantly positive and...

We analyze the spatial diffusion of laser-technology in Germany during the early phase of development, between 1960 and 2005. Research in this new technological field began in a few larger centers and then spread to other regions. In the early years, a large firm of the electronics industry...