top of page

PETR HORAK

THE EFFECT OF PUBLIC R&D SUBSIDIES ON FIRMS' COMPETITIVENESS: REGIONAL AND SECTORAL SPECIFICS IN EMERGING INNOVATION SYSTEMS

V Květoň, P Horák (2018
Applied Geography 94, 119-129

This article examines regional and sectoral impacts of R&D subsidies on firms in Czechia during the period 2007–2014. Driven by still-developing innovation policies where regional innovation systems are emerging, R&D support plays an important role for activating regional potential. To explore this we employed a geographical perspective and a combination of two counterfactual approaches. Our results revealed that R&D support has a higher net effect on companies operating in regions with lower R&D intensity. In the most advanced regions, the differences in effects between supported and unsupported entities are very small and targeted support no longer plays such a significant role. In contrast, indirect tax support associated with innovation activity is applied much more often. Furthermore, our case study in the South Moravian Region revealed that the impact of R&D support is changing over time and reflects from economic cycles. It has been confirmed that direct R&D support in this advanced regional innovation system is associated negatively with firms' competitiveness.

INDIGENOUS LEAD FIRMS IN RURAL REGIONS: GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORKS REVISITED

M Srholec, P Zízalová, P Horak (2018)
Economics of Innovation and New Technology

This paper examines regional distribution of indigenous lead firms in global production networks (GPNs). The paper triangulates unique evidence at the firm-level from a large innovation survey, extensive field interviews and detailed case studies in Czechia. The results indicate that lead firms are not predominantly urban species, as often assumed in the literature, but tend to be located to a surprisingly high extent in rural areas. Nevertheless, rural lead firms differ significantly from the urban ones in many respects. Urban regions turn out to be a seedbed for young, ambitious, close to the market and networked lead firms in new industries, which conforms to typical urbanization economics in action, whereas rural regions tend to harbor mature, established and relatively self-reliant lead firms with strong technical know-how in traditional industries, which build on location-specific resources and traditions. The results call for a more nuanced view on the coupling between GPNs and location advantages and more granular take on the regional dimension of innovation policy.

bottom of page