A special issue of International Journal of Econometrics and Financial Management

Deadline for manuscript submissions: (October 20, 2014)

Special Issue Editor(s)

Chief Guest Editor

Andrey Mikhaylov
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Email: ikbfu39@gmail.com

Special Issue Information

In the early 19th century a French sociologist Frederic Le Play has suggested to consider the inter-dependence and relationship of geography and social development. His idea has given the basis to alienate the regions of the natural world, studied long ago as a separate dependent research subject of the geoscience, from the “physical regions”, established by communities of people, actively influencing its borders and structure. The regional studies are interdisciplinary a priori; hence the notion of a region is a topic of research in numerous fields of science: geography, economics, political science, sociology, cultural studies, history, etc. A number of prominent scholars, such as Niosi, Asheim and Isaksen, note that the region as an object of study should be one of the priorities in the regional studies. The contemporary socio-economic research suggests four main paradigms to consider the region: 1) region as a quasi-state, described as a subsystem of the state and national economy, having relative isolation in decision-making; 2) region as a quasi-corporation pointing at the regional and municipal property, which is engaged in economic relations with other market participants; 3) region as a society, considering the region through the lens of different social groups, their roles and interests in the context of the issues related to the reproduction of social life and the development of the socio-economic system; 4) region as a market, meaning either a common conditions for economic activity in certain territorial boundaries and the presence of the distinctive features of the resource markets in different regions, or the interest of regional authorities in the creation of a favorable business climate.

Giving credits to the classical approach of the regional studies, nowadays researchers consider additional factors in this scope. Strengthening hyper-competition, which sets the growing interest in innovation as a source of competitive advantage, increases the importance of cooperative intra-regional ties in innovation (the concept of open innovation H. Chesbrough). This fact has led to the development of a new approach to define a region – an independent and direct participant in the internationalization and cooperation processes in the economy.

Regions are increasingly eager to benefit from interactions with the outside world through the formation of networks (Stubbs Richard and Geoffrey Underhill), changing the balance in the “center – periphery” (Frank A.G.; Friedmann J.). In this case, the positioning of the region and its movement in the direction of openness or isolationism is dependent on various external and internal factors. As an alternative to the traditional hierarchy ‘from the center to the regions’, comes the network form of organization of social control. The network approach determines the region as a network itself and as an element of an even larger network (Cooke P., Dreger C., Erber G.). Analyzing the changes that occur with the region in a globalized world, the scientists note that the notion of region does not disappear, but it re-appears in a regional-network form.

Keywods

• Theoretical contributions in line with the spatial economics, location modeling, and empirical research over inter-industry analysis;

• The aspects of demography and migration;

• Transportation analysis;

• Urban and rural development, including land use and resource management;

• Environmental and ecological analysis;

• Regional development policy analysis, industrial and innovative development of the regions;

• Articles on geographical information systems, spatial data analysis.

A special issue of International Journal of Econometrics and Financial Management

Deadline for manuscript submissions: (July 31, 2014)

Special Issue Editor(s)

Chief Guest Editor

Andrey Mikhaylov
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Email: ikbfu39@gmail.com

Special Issue Information

Studies on the effects of inter-firm and inter-industry interactions have long been the topic of scientific research around the globe. The industrial cluster approach, which is certainly associated with the name of M. Porter roots to research of E. Dahmen, A. Hirschman and J.R. Lasuen to name just a few. Recent authors discuss the inter-organizational collaboration of actors within the cluster, the backbone of which is involvement in to the process of value co-creation. The cluster ceased to be a geographical term and has transformed into the institutional framework of the new knowledge (networked) economy.

Over the last decade, the cluster concept has moved from being solely of interest to the respective scientific community on to the policy tool, which is being used by national and regional authorities all around the world. One of the latter countries in Europe to introduce the cluster policy was Russia. The special issue of the journal is dedicated to discover the fundamentals and major results of the Russian cluster policy so far. Authors are expected to provide their research results on cluster initiatives being implemented on the regional level, give their critical view on intermediate results, as well as suggest certain methods of analyzing the effects of clustering.

The priority will be given to the econometric articles, aimed at providing quantitative analysis in addition to suggested empirical evidence.

Keywods

• Case study on clustering in Russia (overview and in-depth analysis of regional clusters and innovation networks in the regions of Russia);

• Use of economic and statistical methods of analysis in cluster research (analysis of efficiency and drawbacks, SWOT analysis in relation to certain economic sectors and regional economies, factor analysis, etc.);

• Process and mechanism of formation of clusters in Russia (it is proposed to pay special attention to the stage of emergence of a cluster; the cluster initiative and proto-cluster);

• Regional cluster policies (an overview of the role of governmental authorities in establishing favorable economic conditions for the cluster formation);

• Impact and effects of clustering on the regional economy;

• Inter-cluster cooperation (inter-regional and international cluster cooperation; cluster alliances and cluster networks);

• Development of clusters in high-tech and traditional sectors of economy;

• Comparative analysis of organized and organic clusters in Russia;

• Geography of regional clusters in Russia;

• Institutional collaboration within innovative cluster network (university-business-government-non-profit organizations).