Regional Competition as a „relational‟ problem?

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich Geowissenschaften / Geographie - Wirtschaftsgeographie Note: 17 Universität zu Köln (Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeographisches Institut) Veranstaltung: Economic Geography of the EU Sprache: Deutsch Abstract: The relational approach goes beyond a mere geographical point of view by emphasizing its focus on the varying forms of relations (e.g. social cultural) among actors and structures that effect dynamic changes in the spatial organization of economic activities. Its research topics are economic innovations cross-company forms of organization and processes of collective-institutional learning.1Hence core elements of the relational approach are organization (e.g. cluster) evolution (e.g. historical structures) innovation (e.g. technological development) and interaction (e.g. learning mutual trust) in and between structures and actors.2Following the relational approach a research of the development of the aerospace industry is of particular interest due to its concentration as “an assembly and high-technology industry that inevitably involves a high level of inter-company collaboration”3 its internationalized character and its different development in various regions which has been significantly influenced by organizational structural and innovatory changes.The study reviews those changes by emphasizing on the evolutionary development of the aerospace industry in Toulouse Seattle and North-west England in terms of historical achievements and internal and external changes.By linking relational perceptions and empirical results the study aims to clarify if regional competition in the aerospace industry can be seen as a „relational‟ problem.Therefore I will first give a brief proposal to amplify the relational approach based on the work of Yeung (2005). Thereafter I will present the empirical findings concerning aerospace-related research institutes processes of internationalization and specification