Unternehmensgründungen leisten in hochentwickelten Industrieländern einen Beitrag zum wirtschaftlichen Strukturwandel, befördern Innovationen und bewirken Beschäftigungseffekte. Untersucht werden Spin-offs aus Inkubatorunternehmen, die in einer ersten Phase der Ausgründung ein enges Interaktionsverhältnis zum Mutterunternehmen aufweisen und sich hierin von originären Neugründungen unterscheiden. Solche Interaktionen beinhalten Unterstützungsleistungen z.B. in der Form von Pilot- und Folgeaufträgen, corporate venture-capital, Patenten, Lizenzen, oder das Bereitstellen von Infrastruktur bzw. Arbeitskräften. Dieser Entstehungstyp birgt für das neu gegründete Unternehmen selbst, aber auch bezüglich der weiteren wirtschaftsstrukturellen Implikationen besondere Chancen und Risiken. Erstens entwickeln sich diese Firmen in einem Schonraum, was ihnen besondere Überlebenschancen eröffnet. Zweitens bestehen jedoch besondere Anforderungen bei der Abgrenzung vom Ursprungskontext, um ein eigenständiges Profil und eine entsprechende Wettbewerbsposition zu begründen. Drittens setzen diese Firmen aufgrund der Nähe zum Entstehungskontext etablierte Wirtschaftszweige auf modifizierte Art fort: Sie platzieren neue Dienstleistungs- und technische Produkte am Markt und unterstützen damit den langfristigen Strukturwandel. Für die Durchführung ist ein qualitatives Vorgehen geplant. Wir untersuchen in der Region Baden-Württemberg, welche Strategien die Gründungsunternehmen verfolgen und wie diese Strategien in die allgemeinen betrieblichen Planungen der Geschäftsentwicklung eingestellt sind. Mit der Betrachtung der betrieblichen Strategiebildung und der damit verbundenen unternehmensbezogenen Fokussierung lassen sich zugleich die personen- und die umfeldbezogenen Einflussfaktoren thematisieren. Es ist - so unsere Grundannahme - letztlich die betriebliche Ebene, auf der personen- und umfeldbezogene Faktoren ihre Wirkungen entfalten, und von der aus die aggregierten regionalökonomischen und wirtschaftsstrukturellen Effekte ihren Ausgangspunkt nehmen.
The agricultural sector has experienced substantial structural changes in the past and faces continuing adjustments in the future. The implications of structural change are not only relevant for the sector itself but have broader social, economic and environmental consequences for a region. An understanding of this process is required in order to assess how (agricultural-) policy affects or, if a specific social outcome is desired, can influence this development. A common approach to gain understanding of the process is to model structural change as a Markov process. One problem in the analysis of structural change in the EU is that farm level (micro) data is rarely available such that inference about behaviour of individual farms has to be derived from aggregated (macro) data. Recently, the generalized cross entropy estimator gained popularity in this context since it allows considering prior information such that the often underdetermined 'macro data' Markov models can be estimated. However, the way prior information is considered is also the greatest drawback of the approach. Therefore, the project aims to develop a Bayesian framework as an alternative estimator that allows to consider prior information in a more efficient and transparent way. The project will further provide an evaluation of the statistical properties of the estimator as well as an exemplifying application analyzing the effects of single farm payments on agricultural structural change in the EU.
The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative, or NEESPI, is a currently active, yet strategically evolving program of internationally-supported Earth systems science research, which has as its foci issues in northern Eurasia that are relevant to regional and Global scientific and decision-making communities (see NEESPI Mission Statement). This part of the globe is undergoing significant changes - particularly those changes associated with a rapidly warming climate in this region and with important changes in governmental structures since the early 1990s and their associated influences on land use and the environment across this broad expanse. How this carbon-rich, cold region component of the Earth system functions as a regional entity and interacts with and feeds back to the greater Global system is to a large extent unknown. Thus, the capability to predict future changes that may be expected to occur within this region and the consequences of those changes with any acceptable accuracy is currently uncertain. One of the reasons for this lack of regional Earth system understanding is the relative paucity of well-coordinated, multidisciplinary and integrating studies of the critical physical and biological systems. By establishing a large-scale, multidisciplinary program of funded research, NEESPI is aimed at developing an enhanced understanding of the interactions between the ecosystem, atmosphere, and human dynamics in northern Eurasia. Specifically, the NEESPI strives to understand how the land ecosystems and continental water dynamics in northern Eurasia interact with and alter the climatic system, biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the Earth. The contemporaneous changes in climate and land use are impacting the biological, chemical, and physical functions of the northern Eurasia, but little data and fewer models are available that can be used to understand the current status of this expansive regional system, much less the influence of the northern Eurasia region on the Global climate. NEESPI seeks to secure the necessary financial and related institutional support from an international cadre of sponsors for developing a viable understanding of the functioning of northern Eurasia and the impacts of extant changes on the regional and Earth systems. Many types of ground and integrative (e.g., satellite; GIS) data will be needed and many models must be applied, adapted or developed for properly understanding the functioning of this cold and diverse regional system. Mechanisms for obtaining the requisite data sets and models and sharing them among the participating scientists are essential and require international and active governmental participation. (abridged text)