IMPACT
Strategic impact
Expected impacts listed in the work programme
The project analyses the challenge to attract or maintain anchor firms to enhance regional competitiveness in the knowledge-based European economy through a micro-founded firm-cantered. It also studies the role of network in the economic development. The nature of the analysis will be ‘bottomup’ i.e. moving from the micro-entities of economic actions and strategies at the enterprise level to sectoral, regional, national and European levels.
To analyse different dynamics of globalisation, FRIDA focuses not only on high tech industries such as biotech and nanotech where the science production is global, but also on more traditional industries where technological developments have been mainly local. On the other hand, FRIDA deals with public policies at regional, national and European levels to foster regional competitiveness. From that perspective, this implies that the impact of corporate, industrial and regional strategies and policies at regional, national and European levels can be really understood only through the changes they induce in individual firm behaviour. The main expected impact of the project is to enhance the Regional, National and European policy maker capabilities to anticipate and respond to globalisation, relocation and regional economic development challenges.
Anchor, networks and European value
Compared to previous research efforts in this area, the project incorporates several important innovations: Methodological approach: an important novelty will be the microeconomic emphasis in dealing with the macroeconomic issues of regional development, innovation and competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy. We assume that understanding the microeconomic foundations of network, competitiveness and growth at the firm level, as well as the firms’ interactions through networks is key to understanding the nature of these phenomena at a more aggregated (regional, national and European) level and of the resulting aggregate economic performance.
This micro-level approach, drawing on the behaviour of individual firms and the network approach drawing on network characteristics will be used to address the issues of regional development, competitiveness and network influence at different levels of aggregation (regional, industrial, national, supranational) and to derive general conclusions, relevant for the European economy as a whole and for policy-making. FRIDA will be based on two integrated and coordinated methodologies to study the role of anchor actors and to analyse the impact of network characteristics on regional performances. To the extent possible, the research will be conducted by means of uniform methodological approaches to allow direct comparability of results across regions, industries and countries.
Researches on innovation, networks and regional development have been focused on the role of start-ups to enhance regional performances, employment and competitiveness. By focusing on anchors, FRIDA proposes to better understand the role of lead firms and institutions in the structuration of the local environment. Large firms play a key role in globalisation and relocation. They are easily identified by policy makers and they are situated at the crossroad of different public policies (innovation, industrial, competition policies)
The significant content of innovative elements will generate new scientific results and policy messages that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. It is expected that the integrated research approach and the comparative approach stimulate exchange about practices for regional policy makers. In addition the project aims at reinforcing existing communities of practices amongst European policy makers to maintain and improve the European leader in a global economy.
The European value added of the project stems from several sources:
- the European perspective is clearly incorporated into the project. The project will draw from a broad variety of European experiences at different levels (firm, region, industry) from both new members and historical members at the EC level.
- the project targets research and policy issues of high relevance for Europe, in particular, the objectives of the revised Lisbon Agenda. It addresses different dimensions of European policies i.e. policies to foster innovation, research and growth as well as competition and collaboration policies.
- the project will also be instrumental in exchanging practices and policy implementation strategies amongst policy makers at different levels (regional, national and European).
- the project is a opportunity to establish intensive cooperation amongst European researchers and institutions, including the sharing of data, research methodology and the derivation of policy implications. This cooperative effort, combined with a multidisciplinary approach embodied in the research agenda, will generate research synergies across institutions, disciplines and countries. In addition, junior researchers are involved in the project to strengthen long term cooperation.
The FRIDA project will complement different approaches which have been developed in other EU projects:
- Based on econometric analyses and the use of micro level analysis (Community Innovation Survey), MICRODYN aims addressing the issue of growth, employment and competitiveness in the knowledge-based European economy through a micro-founded firm-based approach
- The EURODITE project analyses the composition of knowledge economy and how it is embedded in European regions to inform policies seeking to promote the transition of Europe towards a knowledge-based society. Based on statistical analysis and sectorial case studies, EURODITE seeks to identify appropriate practices for different regions given their respective economic base and level of knowledge development.