The Young Economic Geographers Network (YEGN) invited for the fourth annual workshop between August 19 and August 21 of 2019 in Umeå (Sweden). In 2017, Kerstin J. Schäfer, Lars Mewes and Timo Kleiner organized the meeting in Goslar. YEGN is an international network of young scientists in Economic Geography and related disciplines. The workshop offers PhD students the great opportunity to present their work among peers in a constructive and friendly atmosphere.
In her presentation titled "’Give us ideas!’ – splitting research and development to bridge lack of innovativeness", Kerstin J. Schäfer presented results of her study on the endowment of R&D locations with innovative capability and its impacts on transnational cooperation for innovation in a latecomer company. In her talk titled “Regional Innovation Systems in heterogeneous places. Methodological developments based on qualitative research in Chongqing, China“, Anna-Barbara Heindl discussed the deductive application of concepts in qualitative research on the geography of innovation. Drawing on the example of the Regional Innovation System in China, she showed how critical, inductive approaches might develop the field of research. The presentation by Timo Kleiner titled “The Impact of R&D Resources on Innovation Success in Turkey – Comparing EMNEs, AMNEs and Domestic Turkish Firms” discussed the influence of various R&D resources on innovation success for Turkish as well as Multinational Enterprises in Turkey. In particular, external resources with regard to market innovation play a decisive role for respective company types.
Special thanks go to Marcin Rataj, Emelie Hane-Weijman, Zoltan Elekes and all others from the Department of Geography at Umeå University who organized this great event. The YEGN network has proven again its value to connect PhD students from different places around the world and foster the exchange of research topics within the discipline.
