European Regional Science Association
|
European Regional Science Association
|
|
|
|
|
The abstract for paper number 300:
Patrick Dümmler, IRL-Institute
ETH Zurich
Switzerland, Zurich, Switzerland
Knowledge Intensive Activities - Examining Clusters in Switzerland
In the area of high-tech and globalisation innovation is getting more important than ever. To stay ahead of competitors a country not only needs to have a stable political system and a first class public infrastructure it also needs to create a favourable environment for companies to produce innovations. Then according to BRACZYK ET AL. today the number one factor for competitive advantage is innovation (1998). Switzerland is still among the most competitive nations in the world (IMD, 2002), much of the competitiveness originates from good positions in criteria like using most advanced technologies and having a high intensity of research and development (R&D).
But important for the Swiss case are not only the criteria examined by the IMD report but also the very close neighbourhood of the international financial place and the high-tech companies, especially in the Zurich region. This spatial proximity might result in the close co-operation for financing innovation. Therefore this paper examines as a first step the spatial concentration in terms of clusters of the financial institutions and the high-tech companies. If it can be shown that banks and high-tech companies are close to each other this result might serve as a starting point for a further analysis, examining cooperation and spillovers on an individual company level.
Unfortunately full paper has not been submitted.