The Innovativeness and Heterogeneity of Foreign‐Invested High‐Tech Companies in Shanghai

China has taken a foreign direct investment‐based approach toward increasing its capital and knowledge base, and developing into an innovative economy. However, little quantitative evidence exists about the factors that drive innovations of foreign‐invested enterprises (FIEs) there. This paper uses survey data from high‐technology firms in Shanghai to discuss factors affecting their innovativeness. It takes the concepts of absorptive capacity, export orientation, and innovation‐related cooperation as a starting point. It highlights how the interplay of strategies and resources affects innovativeness and heterogeneity of FIEs. The most innovative FIEs are endowed with a strong human capital base and R&D activities, which at the same time target export markets and whose cooperative partners involve firms other than their parent company. The results underline the necessity to differentiate between the different types of FIEs when examining their innovativeness.     

International Trade and the Changing Demand for Skilled Workers in High‐Tech Manufacturing

ABSTRACT States and localities in the U.S. put considerable effort into attracting and maintaining high‐tech manufacturing industries to preserve manufacturing employment. However, little work has examined whether high‐tech industries respond differently than traditional manufacturing to changing trade pressures. This study investigates the impact of international trade on skilled and unskilled labor demand across manufacturing sectors. Results of this study indicate that changes in exchange rates and trade orientation have similar effects across high‐tech and traditional manufacturing sectors. In addition, findings suggest that there is a high degree of variation in the trade‐related effects on labor demand across individual high‐tech sectors, and that the direction of these effects often runs counter to the predictions of traditional trade theory.     

Canadian Investment in Northern New York: Impact of Exchange Rates on Foreign Direct Investment

This paper investigates the determinants of Canadian direct investment in Northern New York, focusing on the influence of changing foreign exchange rates. Hypotheses are formulated that new investment should be positively related to the value of the U.S. dollar while expansions of existing facilities ought to be unrelated to exchange rate movements. These predictions are supported by the data. Since Canadian investment is found to behave quite differently from domestic-source investment, we conclude that other factors besides exchange rates account for much of this difference.¹     

Exporting,Foreign Direct Investment,and Wages: Evidence from the Canadian Manufacturing Sector

Do exporters and foreign‐controlled establishments pay their workers higher wages than non‐exporters and domestic‐controlled establishments? This paper draws on an employer–employee data set to explore the existence of exporter and foreign‐owned wage premiums in the Canadian manufacturing sector. Results from wage regression models reveal that, on the whole, exporters and foreign‐controlled plants do pay higher wages than non‐exporters and domestic‐controlled plants. These results hold even after controlling for other plant and worker characteristics, although the wage differentials are substantially smaller. Furthermore, while the impact of foreign ownership on wages is found to be widespread across industries and regions, that of exporting is not. At the industry level, the wage effects of export‐market participation are strongest for workers in plants belonging to scale‐based industries; regionally, they are strongest in Quebec and British Columbia.     

State Characteristics and the Locational Choice of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Regional FDI in Mexico 1989–2006

ABSTRACT Despite the growing importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Mexican economy, statistical evidence on the determinants of the regional distribution of foreign‐owned firms is seriously limited. In this paper, empirical findings are presented from a variety of econometric models that identify several regional characteristics influencing the locational choice of FDI. The main findings are threefold. First, several locational factors appear to be potentially important; these include regional demand, wages, schooling, infrastructure, and agglomeration economies. Second, the effect of agglomeration economies stems from several sources. In particular, the regional presence of agglomerations of manufacturing activity and of foreign‐owned manufacturing firms both have an independent positive effect on the locational decision of new FDI. Third, the locational process of maquiladora firms differs from the locational process of overall FDI. The actual findings suggest that regional demand and infrastructure, as suggested above, are not important locational factors for export‐oriented firms. Furthermore, whereas agglomeration economies from manufacturing and the presence of existing FDI attract new maquiladora investment, the presence of a regional agglomeration of services deters the location of new maquiladora firms. Finally, agglomeration economies appear to be more important in the locational process of maquiladora firms.     

FDI in Space Revisited: The Role of Spillovers on Foreign Direct Investment within the European Union

We estimate a spatial econometric interaction model for bilateral aggregate FDI stock data between 25 European Union member countries in 2010. We find evidence for spatial spillovers of foreign direct investment for three different types of spatial dependence. Our results document FDI spillovers between neighboring countries of FDI origin countries, neighboring countries of FDI destination countries as well as between neighboring countries of both FDI origin and destination countries. Relying on recently developed methods, we provide the first model‐consistent interpretation of marginal effects of market size (measured by GDP) as well as GDP per capita on bilateral FDI activity. Our research highlights the importance of taking into account spatial lags when estimating bilateral FDI gravity models.     

Explaining the Relative Frequency of Face‐to‐face Meetings in Cooperative Relationships among Companies: An Econometric Analysis

This paper analyses the factors that influence the relative frequency of face‐to‐face meetings when companies cooperate with each other. Specifically, we explore the role of geographical distance between the partners and how it affects the influence of other factors, especially the nature of knowledge and the ability to use information technology. An econometric analysis based on a survey of 338 companies in the Brittany region (France) shows that the factors that influence the relative frequency of face‐to‐face encounters differ according to whether the partners are located within or outside a single region. In particular, the nature of knowledge plays a role only when the partners are remote.     

Genetic diversity,population structure,pollen morphology and cross‐compatibility among Chinese Cymbidiums

A total of 85 Chinese Cymbidiums and one Zygopetalum were collected and analysed using 29 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 12 intersimple sequence repeats (ISSRs). These Chinese Cymbidiums are some of the most popular cultivars in market. The pairwise genetic distance between these accessions averaged 0.897, ranging from 0.259 to 1.000. A model‐based clustering analysis revealed five genetic groups with serious admixture ancestry, as indicated by a fixation index of 0.156 and only 10.67% genetic variation among groups. By analysing the cross‐compatibility and pollen morphology, Chinese Cymbidiums are revealed to have high compatibility for intra‐ and interspecific crosses. Notably, Zygopetalum mackayi had high compatibility with Chinese Cymbidiums and shared similar morphologies in terms of pollinia and pollen grain. This study is the first to report a successful cross between Zygopetalum and Chinese Cymbidiums. The high compatibility offers the potential for introducing Zygopetalum mackayi's superior traits into Chinese Cymbidiums. The similar pollen morphology as well as the low genetic differentiation might be related to the high cross‐compatibility among these accessions.     

Institutions and local growth coalitions in China's urban land reform: The case of Hangzhou High‐Technology Zone

Abstract: China's urban land reform is a gradualist process of transforming a planned land allocation system to an open land market system, while the ownership of the land remains under the control of the state. This process defines the relationships between local government and emerging non‐public interest groups in the land development process. These issues can be most clearly seen in the State‐Approved Development Zones, where municipalities have been encouraged to promote economic development and test out land policy initiatives. Using the institutionalist and urban growth machine analytical approaches to land development processes, this study examines the operation of development processes and the role of local government and its relationship with other interest groups. By employing a case study research strategy, focused upon the Hangzhou High‐Technology Zone, the study uncovered a local government‐led growth coalition which featured participation by other interest groups and revealed the applicability and variations when applying two strands of theories to a socialist economy in transition. Besides the land reform policy implications drawn from the case study evidence, the study concludes that the presence of interest groups and the missing community organisations unique to China give new theoretical implications and that both theories work much better with the economic domain than with the political domain largely because of a lagged political reform.     

DROUGHT STRESS: Soil Water Availability Alters the Inter‐ and Intra‐Cultivar Competition of Three Spring Wheat Cultivars Bred in Different Eras

Competition for water generates a classic aspect of the tragedy of the commons, the ‘race for fish’, where crops must allocate more resource to acquisition of the limiting resource than is optimal for crop yield allocation. A pot experiment using a simple additive (target–neighbour) design was conducted to examine the above‐ground and below‐ground growth of three spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars when grown alone and in mixtures at three levels of water availability. The effects of competition and water availability were compared by observing patterns of growth, biomass allocation and below‐ground outcomes. Competitive interactions were investigated among cultivars ‘HST’, ‘GY602’ and ‘LC8275’, target plant of each cultivar grown without neighbouring plants are referred to herein as control plant and one target plant of each cultivar sown surrounded either by same or another cultivar as intra‐ or inter‐cultivar competition. Competitive ability was assessed as the response ratio (lnRR) between the target plant surrounded by six other plants and the target plant in isolation. Our results showed that the cultivar ‘HST’, released over a century ago, produced a higher biomass and grain yield than the more recently released cultivars ‘LC8275’ and ‘GY602’ when grown as isolated plants with sufficient water supply. However, competition for resources from neighbours led to target plant biomass and grain yield being significantly reduced relative to controls in all three cultivars, particularly in ‘HST’. When subjected to intra‐cultivar competition, the two recently released cultivars ‘LC8275’ and ‘GY602’ had higher grain yields and water use efficiency for grain than ‘HST’ in all three water regimes. The landrace ‘HST’ had better and significantly linear relationships between biomass and biomass allocation, root length and specific root length, whereas the recent and modern cultivars had much more water‐related species‐specific changes in root morphology and allocation patterns. These results suggest that crop traits that influence competitive ability, such as biomass allocation to roots and root plasticity in response to drought have changed in modern wheat cultivars because of breeding and selection.     

The persistence of inter‐regional hierarchy in technology transfer networks: An analysis of Chinese patent licensing data

This paper asks whether the technological development of a nation reduces the inter‐regional hierarchy in knowledge flow. We examine two scenarios that are the alternative to each other. The first is what we call the globalization of regional innovation system/weakening of inter‐regional hierarchy scenario: As many regions develop their niches in the global economy, the national “anchor” region loses its relative importance as the importer and distributor of new knowledge, rendering the domestic inter‐regional hierarchy less significant as a result. The second scenario is the globalization of national innovation system/persistence of inter‐regional hierarchy. The nation’s traditional anchor region becomes even more active in importing technology and distributing it to other regions of the country. To test which scenario is closer to reality, we employ social network metrics to analyse inter‐regional technology diffusion networks using Chinese patent licensing data for the 1998–2013 period. Our findings support the second scenario, showing that the influence of the traditional anchor region persists in the hierarchical network structure as new cities enter the network. We found five anchor regions: the three usual suspects—Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen—plus two that were slightly less expected—Dongguan and Suzhou.     

The Spatial Dimension of Trade‐ and FDI‐driven Productivity Growth in Chinese Provinces: A Global Cointegration Approach

This paper analyses the major determinants of long‐ and short‐run labour productivity evolution for Chinese provinces between 1978 and 2010. The role played by openness to trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) constitutes the main focus of this analysis. From a methodological perspective, our main contribution is the inclusion of spatial effects into a dynamic error correction modelling framework. The results show that, in addition to domestic factors such as investment intensity and infrastructure use, trade openness and inward FDI also exert a direct impact on labour productivity. Furthermore, the geographical environment has a strong indirect influence on productivity: The more a region is surrounded by high‐productive regions with good infrastructure and linkages to the world economy, the higher are its productivity level and growth rate. The magnitude of these impacts varies by spatial regime (coastal, interior provinces) and time period in focus. Especially in the recent past, trade and FDI activity appear to be increasingly important drivers of regional productivity evolution, both for coastal and interior regions. These findings have important policy implications: In order to fully exploit the benefits from such spillovers, coordinated industrial policies which foster regional complementarities and support the free movement of production factors across regional borders are crucial.     

Time Pioneers and Travel Behavior: An Investigation into the Viability of ‘Slow Motion’

This paper positions time in the center of spatial economic analysis, with a particular view on travel speed in transport behavior. The issue of ‘slow motion’ is at present very timely and has led to a new concept in transport analysis, viz. ‘time pioneer’. Such a person is prepared to give up part of his scarce time for other, as yet unknown purposes. This attitude might generate ‘slow motion’ behavior. The paper aims to critically review the concept of a time pioneer from a broad perspective on the socio-economic meaning of time in our globalizing society. The viability of time pioneering behavior is next empirically tested by means of an extensive survey among travelers in the Netherlands. A new modeling experiment, viz. rough set analysis, is carried out in order to deal with empirical survey data in a smallsample context. On the basis of the empirical results, it is concluded that, while ‘slow motion’ is seemingly an appealing socio-psychological travel mode, the share of time pioneers among actual travelers is rather low.     

Infrastructure Investment and Rural Economic Development: An Evaluation of USDA's Broadband Loan Program

We empirically evaluate whether participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Broadband Loan Program, which began making loans in 2002, has had measurable positive impacts on zip code‐level economic outcomes. Using difference in differences and propensity score matching program evaluation techniques, we find that loans made in 2002 and 2003 under the Pilot Broadband Loan Program have had a substantial positive impact on employment, annual payroll, and the number of business establishments in recipient communities. However, a more spatially disaggregated analysis reveals that the positive economic impacts of the pilot program are driven primarily by the outcomes in communities located closest to urban areas. Finally, we find no evidence that loans received as part of the current Broadband Loan Program have had a measurable positive impact on recipient communities, possibly because not enough time has elapsed for the impacts of the current Broadband Loan Program to have emerged.     

High‐throughput development of SSR marker candidates and their chromosomal assignment in rye (Secale cereale L.)

Shotgun survey sequences of flow‐sorted individual rye chromosomes were data mined for the presence of simple sequence repeats (SSRs). For 787,850 putative SSR loci, a total of 358,660 PCR primer pairs could be designed and 51,138 nonredundant SSR marker candidates were evaluated by in silico PCR. Of the 51,138 SSR primer candidates, 1,277 were associated with 1,125 rye gene models. A total of 2,112 of the potential SSR markers were randomly selected to represent about equal numbers for each of the rye chromosomes, and 856 SSRs were assigned to individual rye chromosomes experimentally. Potential transferability of rye SSRs to wheat and barley was of low efficiency with 4.3% (2,189) and 0.4% (223) of rye SSRs predicted to be amplified in wheat and barley, respectively. This data set of rye chromosome‐specific SSR markers will be useful for the specific detection of rye chromatin introgressed into wheat as well as for low‐cost genetic and physical mapping in rye without the need for high‐tech equipment.     

Post‐displacement community resilience: Considering the contribution of indigenous skills and cultural capital among ethnic minority Vietnamese

Despite an improving regulatory framework and policies governing compensation and resettlement, the majority of the millions displaced worldwide each year by hydropower dam construction continue to experience marginalisation and impoverishment, suggesting that external financial support must be supplemented by strengthened community‐based resilience. In order to understand more about the innate resources of displaced rural communities, we applied a community resilience approach to two resettled Co‐tu ethnic minority villages in an upland area in central Vietnam to identify their community capitals and their application in improving livelihoods and living conditions. We found that weak human and financial capital constrained the ability of the resettled residents to adopt new livelihoods or migrate to seek employment. Reduced forest and river access also problematised responses to a lack of agricultural land. However, traditionally strong village affinity and social networks were retained. In addition, indigenous skills such as housing construction, honed by a highly mobile traditional lifestyle, allowed residents to construct culturally significant structures like community houses and modify or augment received housing stock. These elements of social and cultural capital eased the process of post‐resettlement adaptation. We conclude that governments should reassess current resettlement policies that prioritise financial compensation and should incorporate awareness of the adaptive resilience and limitations fostered by indigenous knowledge and practices in resettlement action plans.     

Malay‐Muslim spirits and Malaysian capitalist modernity: A study of keramat propitiation among property developers in Penang

Abstract: Property developers in Penang (Malaysia) were erecting shrines and performing rituals to propitiate a Malay‐Muslim guardian spirit of local sacred places known interchangeably as keramat or Datuk Kong during a period of euphoric economic growth in Malaysia in the early 1990s. Drawing on anthropological approaches, this article explores the symbolic significance of this peculiar capitalist sacralisation in Penang. It argues that keramat propitiation among property developers can be better grasped by understanding how this spirit cult is engendered and acted on by deep historical structures of cultural hybridity, socioeconomic and ethnonationalist transformations in Malaysia. It is with this background that the keramat cult converges with Chinese supernatural beliefs and becomes a potent idiom that expresses and negotiates contradictions inherent in a highly speculative activity and ethnically charged political economy in Malaysia. This conjunction between the keramat cult and property development activities brings to light the centrality of ethnicity and religion in characterising capitalist formations in a new Asian economy and urban environment.