1,721,004 research outputs found
Two Essays about Agglomeration Dynamics and Firm Economic Performance
Full text linkThere is a long history of research about agglomeration economies in economic geography and regional economics. Researchers have tried and still trying to answer to questions such as does spatial clustering still matter today? how it evolves? which are their determinants? how agglomeration externalities affect the economic performance of regions and firms?
The empirical literature on agglomeration economies focus on two main topics. The first is about the sources of geographic concentration of economic activities. The second is related to the effects of spatial agglomeration on firm economic performance.
Research about the determinants of agglomeration economies can be date back to Marshall (1920), which identified three different sources: input sharing, labor market pooling and knowledge spillovers. Apparel manufacturer in New York is an example of input sharing, since firms can purchase a variety of relatively cheap buttons from nearby button manufacturing firms. A software company in Silicon Valley can quickly hire one skilled programmer. Meanwhile, a skilled programmer living in Silicon Valley can easily find a new job in this cluster without moving to another place. This is a good example of labor market pooling, which reduces the searching costs for both employees and employers, as well as improves the matching quality. An example of knowledge spillovers can be the random interaction between people working in similar fields who exchange tacit knowledge with each other.
Research about the effects of spatial agglomeration on firm economic performance is more recent. Generally it refers to the effects of spatial agglomeration and thus of different types of local externalities on firms’ economic performance, that is whether location within an agglomerated area generates positive returns on the economic performance of firms and, consequently, of the economic dynamisms and growth of regions.
This thesis intends to move along this line of research, specifically, try to contribute to this debate in two directions: [1] investigating the temporal dynamics of spatial agglomeration in the Italian manufacturing industry; [2] analysing the relationship between related variety and firm economic performance in China. In general, the thesis is a collection of two empirical studies dealing with spatial agglomeration from two different perspectives.
The first chapter of this thesis, “Agglomeration over time”, which is co-authored with Giulio Cainelli (University of Padova) and Roberto Ganau (University of Padova and LSE), is aimed to investigate the space-time agglomeration dynamics that characterised the manufacturing industry during the recent period of the Great Recession. Specifically, the analysis uses a large sample of geo-referenced single-plant manufacturing firms observed over the period 2007-2012 and located in the Italian continental territory to explore the spatial and temporal dimensions of clustering processes, as well as their potential interaction. The empirical analysis is carried out by adopting three different statistical approaches. First, the index of industrial geographic concentration proposed by Ellison and Glaeser (1997). Second, the spatial K-function, originally proposed by Ripley (1976) in the context of spatial points pattern analyses. Third, the space-time K-function, that has been proposed by Diggle et al. (1995) as an extension of the univariate spatial K-function in order to analyse simultaneously the spatial and temporal dimensions of spatial points processes, as well as their potential interaction. The analysis based on EG index highlights the existence of heterogeneity in spatial agglomeration between different industries, but this region-based measure suffers from MAUP problem. To correct the MAUP, we introduce spatial point process method-K function,as well as M-function, which relying on micro-geographic data, rather than pre-defined spatial area, to test firm location patter against Completely Spatial Randomness (CSR). To address the dynamic process that evolve both over space and time, we apply space-time K-function, and some statistical diagnostics, to test the potential interaction between these two dimensions. By space-time analysis, we empirically confirm that, different space-time processes can lead to the spatial patterns which look the same. No significant interaction between spatial and temporal processes, which could be the short period we observe.
The second chapter of the thesis “Related Variety and Economic Growth at Firm Level in China”, which is a single-authored paper, aims at investigating the effect of related and unrelated variety on firm level economic growth in China. As empirical results of MAR externalities and Jacobs externalities impact on economic growth are various and inconclusive. Related variety and unrelated variety, a new entropy method proposed by Frenken et.al.(2007), which focuses on the structure inside industry, was applied in this chapter. Basically, firm economic proportional growth specification-Gibrat’s Law, is extended including these two agglomeration externalities-which sectoral diversity is split into related and unrelated variety for distinguishing between sectors with cognitive or technology proximity, with a sample of 84,868 Chinese firms operating in manufactory industry observed during the period 2006-2013. Recent studies about related variety and economic growth, which indeed is the main reason for regional growth, most empirical papers are about developed countries, studies about developing countries are rare. This chapter contributes an empirical study about this debate in a typical developing country, and to our knowledge, it’s the first paper analysis Chinese firms economic growth within related variety framework; besides it’s a firm level empirical research with historical data during 2006-2013, a transformation period for China, with rapid economic development and technological innovation. The results show that, correcting only for sample-selection, unrelated variety has a negative and statistically significant impact. Accounting also for the endogeneity of the two main explanatory variables – related and unrelated variety –the negative effect of unrelated variety becomes insignificant. A positive effect for related variety and negative for unrelated variety is detected only when we consider high-developed Chinese regions. Finally, a positive effect of related variety is identified for large firms
Assessing Digital Tools in Education Process for Cultural Heritage: A Literature Review
Full text linkParticipatory learning plays a key role in people-centered heritage conservation by engaging communities and diverse audiences in knowledge co-creation and transmission. Emerging digital tools further expand access and enrich heritage education. While numerous case studies have explored these tools, existing research often isolates technological features from educational outcomes, lacking a comprehensive understanding of how tool types support participatory learning goals.This study analyzes 140 relevant publications retrieved from the Scopus database, using a four-dimensional framework encompassing Cultural Heritage, Education, Digital Tools, and Participation. Following data purification, a quantitative analysis is performed to systematically examine keyword evolution and the development of research focus over time, utilizing the visualization
tool CiteSpace. The findings reveal the research interests within the digital tools in participatory learning in education process of cultural heritage sector over the past decade have been evolving along time, encompassing areas such as immersive technologies (VR/AR), gamified learning (serious games), applications in higher education, and socio-cultural engagement, while increasingly expanding towards AI-driven personalized learning, multimodal interaction, and big data analytics. Furthermore, by establishing an assessment framework, this study elucidates the distinct advantages and disadvantages of each digital
tool in the educational process. The insights derived aim to provide practical guidance for researchers, policymakers, and educators on how to effectively integrate emerging technologies into participatory learning initiatives for cultural heritage conservation
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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