Geographies of the
global economy
The global spatial order & innovation
Lecture 1: February 24th, 2023
Etieno Enang
[email protected]
By: Dr Etieno Enang
Attendance Code
283266
Today’s Lecture
Introduction
Module Overview
Globalisation and spatial order?
Innovation
Next steps
Module Overview
• Handbook and Canvas
• 6 weeks: lectures &
seminars
• Asynchronous material
• Group work and Report
• Work effectively together
• Deadline 12th May
• Be proactive
• No such thing as
a silly question!!
Dr Etieno Enang, PhD
• Lecturer in International Business & Strategy
▫ BSc in Microbiology
▫ MSc in Risk Management (with distinction)
▫ PhD in Strategy and Organization (without corrections)
▫ PGCAPHE in Developing Academic Practice
▫ CAPM, PMI USA
▫ Multinational work experience (Aviation sector)
• I love: my job, travelling, getting acquainted with new people and new food,
philosophical conversations, critical discussions…
General information
• Teaching staff
▫ Dr Etieno Enang– Module Leader, Lectures & Seminars
Seminars
✓Seminars assimilate the assignment – PRACTICE ! PRACTICE !
PRACTICE !
✓Need to come prepared !
Feedback
✓ Coffee hour @ ULMS café – grab a coffee, drop a question
✓Every Tuesday 11.30-12.30
✓Zoom feedback hour – show up online, drop a question
✓Every Monday 11.45-12.45
Less fancy..
▪ During the lectures and seminars
▪ Via email
▪ Personal meetings
My 50% in this relationship..
• I teach you the frameworks/concepts in lectures
• We apply them in practice in the seminars
• Coffee hour every week
• Zoom feedback hour every week
Your 50% in this relationship..
• Attend ALL lectures & seminars
• Read relevant, high quality sources
• Avoid plagiarism, reference properly
work hard
• Use university resources:
– ULMS Know how, Lib Support
• Come prepared to seminars
• Ask questions – Engage with me
and your fellow students
• NAIL the assignment
Today’s Lecture
Introduction
Module Overview
Globalization and spatial order?
Innovation
Next steps
Definitions of Globalization
• Empirical: the actual structural changes that are occurring in the way
the global economy is organized and integrated.
• Ideological: the neo-liberal, free market ideology of the ‘globalization
project
• Historical roots of the concept: 19th century, ideas of Karl Marx
Geographies of Globalization
• Globalization: ‘the qualitative transformation of economic relationships across geographical
space’ (Jessop, 2002)
• Complex and changing geographies, rather than a single global geography
• To ascribe a single cause/origin for globalization is meaningless
• The Four Tendencies
– localizing processes
– internationalizing processes
– globalizing processes
– regionalizing processes
Dicken, 2015, p7
Positions on Globalization
• Hyper-globalists
– Argue that we live in a borderless world where the national is
irrelevant
– Neo-liberal faction
– Anti-globalization faction
• Sceptical internationalists
– Argue that there is nothing new about globalization; the world
was more open and transnational in the past than in the
present
“The world is flat”….or is it…..?
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1061992985?playlistId=tt8132
700&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi

• Friedman in 2005, termed the period Globalization 3.0,
thereby differentiating it from the previous,
• Globalization 1.0, during which countries and
governments were the main protagonists,
• and Globalization 2.0, during which multinational
companies led the way in driving global integration.
• Friedman defines ten “flatteners” that he sees as
levelling the global playing field:
1. Collapse of the Berlin Wall – 11/9/89: Friedman called the flattener “When the walls came down, the windows
came up.”
2. Netscape – 8/9/95: Netscape went public at the price of $28. Netscape and the Web took the internet away from
geeks to everyone from five-year-olds to ninety-five-year-olds.
3. Workflow software: Software protocols eg HTML or SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) created a “genesis moment
of the flat world” allowing multiple forms of collaboration, on which the next six flatteners depend.
4. Uploading: Uploading involves communities that upload and collaborate on online projects. Eg. open
source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers this “the most disruptive force of all”.
5. Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has enabled companies to split service and manufacturing activities
into components that can be subcontracted and performed in the most efficient, most cost-effective way.
6. Offshoring: the internal relocation of a company’s manufacturing or other processes to another country to take
advantage of lower cost operations there. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and the rise of the BRICs
7. Supply-chaining: Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river e.g. Wal-Mart’s use of technology to
streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.
8. Insourcing: a company’s employees perform services – beyond shipping – for another company eg UPS repairs
Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba..
9. Informing: Google and other search engines and Wikipedia. “Never before in the history of the planet have so many
people – on their own – had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other
people”, writes Friedman. Google processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second, translating to 5.6
billion searches per day and approximately 2 trillion global searches per year (June 2021).
10. “The Steroids”: The steroids are wireless, Voice over IP (VoIP) and file sharing used on smart phones, tablets etc.
Mobile can be done anywhere and anytime by anyone, and can be done to anyone.
Growing Interconnectedness within the global
economy
• Trade is faster than output
• FDI has grown faster than trade (importance of transnational
corporations- TNCs)
• Serious structural imbalances around the global economy
Trade is growing faster than output

FDI has grown faster than trade

Structural imbalances in the global economy
The Changing Contours of the Global Economic Map
• Are we witnessing a major redrawing of the global economic map?
• Who is winning? Are developing economies winning out at the
expense of developed economies?
• What about the centre of gravity? Moving from west to east?
Understanding the Changing contours of the global
economic map
• Continuing geographical concentration but with a changing focus
• The USA still dominates the global economy – but less than it did
in the past
• Europe is still a major player- but its performance is highly
uneven
• Emergence of transitional economies of Eastern Europe and
Russian Federation
• Resurgence of Asia as worlds most dynamic economic region: by
far the most significant global shift during the past 50 years
Flat
Not flat
Flat
Not flat
our
focus
(here)

Global inequality
The world resized
according to:
# of people (top)
GDP output (bottom)
Begging the question:
• 1. Is there an order to the spikiness?
Global, regional, local: place matters
• 2. Why are there agglomerations?
People & businesses
• 3. What determines their success?

Understanding globalization?
What theories help us to explain the dynamics of
the global economy? Flat or Spiky-ness?
Regional order
• Old school geography:
descriptive accounts
History
Chance
(Factor endowment)
Regional order
• Christaller’s central place theory
– Urban centres typically provide
services
– Spatial competition
-Threshold (market): min no of
ppl required to support a service
-Range (traveling): max distance
people are willing to travel to
obtain a good or service
Regional order
• Christaller’s central
place theory
Threshold (market)
Range (traveling)
Regional order
• Christaller’s central
place theory
Threshold (market)
Range (traveling)
• Christaller applied
to Poland
y
Regional order
• Spatial and social inequalit
• Urban vs rural?
• Core vs peripery?
• New economy vs old?
• Industrial vs Services?

• Core – Periphery – Semi-periphery (
• Global division of labour
• Core developed over 300 years
• Post WW2, 71% of world
manufacturing production in 4
countries and 90% in only eleven
countries
• Since then, demise of communism
• Rise of China and the BRICs
Global order: World Systems Theory (WST)
Global order
• Porter’s stages of
development
• Development of clusters
and agglomeration
Source: Global competitiveness report, 2017-2018, p. 12
Regional order
• Cluster concept:
‘Geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and
institutions in a particular field’ – Porter 1998, p. 78
• Not a new concept: Alfred Marshall’s industrial districts e.g.
Sheffield’s steel ‘cluster’ or Lancashire’s textile industry
• See: https://academic.oup.com/cje/article/33/2/335/1732562

See Boeing documentary on
Netflix – excellent, trailer on
Canvas
•Frankfurt

• Ibid.
Local order
Social
media
Biotech
Enterprise
software
Venture
capital
Tech
giants
Misc.
computing
Automotive
Agglomerations: causes
• People: jobs, services, etc.
• Businesses: geography, networks, institutions
Gains from agglomeration?
Increased entry / survival?
• Small firms ‘competitively collaborating’
Agglomerations: success
• Multilevel
• Success at what level?
Uneven benefits
• Firm-specific factors
Resource Based View
Absorptive capacity
• Path dependency, over time
Other theories to explain spatial orders
• Evolution (Veblen & Schumpeter)
• Growth poles (Perroux) – districts and localization (Marshall, Sabel
& Piore, Beccatini) – urbanization (Jacobs) – Transaction Cost
Theory (TCT) (Williamson)
• Networks (Grabher)
• National (Lundvall) / regional innovation systems (Asheim)
• Context, change, path dependence
• NO ONE-SIZE FITS ALL THEORY…
Regional order
• Evolution (Veblen & Schumpeter)
• Growth poles (Perroux) – districts and localization (Marshall, Sabel
& Piore, Beccatini) – urbanization (Jacobs) – TCT (Williamson)
• Networks (Grabher)
• National (Lundvall) / regional innovation systems (Asheim)
Part 2: Innovation
Today’s Lecture
Introduction
Module Overview
Globalisation and spatial order
Innovation
Next steps
What makes places ‘successful’ (or not)? ‘Sources’ of
competitiveness in the global economy?
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Exports
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation
‘Success’
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Exports
• FDI
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation
‘Success’
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Exports
• FDI
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation
‘Success’
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Exports
• FDI
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation
‘Success’
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Export
• FDI
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation
‘Success’
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Exports
• FDI
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation
‘Success’
• Value added (GDP)
• Industrial emergence
• Exports
• FDI
• Institutions
• QoL
• Innovation

Innovation
• A source of
‘competitiveness’
• Difficult to do
and understand
• But why? ?
Chimera – a many
headed beast…
Overview part 2
What is innovation?
Why does it matter?
Investing in innovation
Wrapping up
• What New oris improved innovation? products
• What New oris improved innovation? products
• What New oris improved innovation? products
Innovation
• What is innovation?
• New or improved products?
• What New oris improved innovation? products
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
• …marketing methods
Innovation
• What is innovation?
• New or improved products?
• New or improved services
• Process innovation
• Marketing innovation
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
• …marketing methods
• …organizational methods
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
• …marketing methods
• …organizational methods
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
• …marketing methods
• …organizational methods
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• New or improved services
• Process innovation
• Marketing innovation
• Organizational innovation
What is innovation?
• New or improved products
• …services
• …processes
• …marketing methods
• …organizational methods
Degree of novelty
New to firm
New to market
New to world
Radical
Incremental
What is innovation?
• And there are even more types
…frugal innovation
…eco-innovation
…experience innovation
…etc.
Why is innovation important?
• Effects on many different levels
Economy-wide
Industry
Firm
Technological
– Growth, employment, exports, etc.
– Growth, survival, etc.
– Profits, growth, etc.
– Patents, etc.
Today’s Lecture
Introduction
Module Overview
Globalisation and spatial order
Innovation
Next steps
Course Overview
• Seminar groups 1 and 2
• Group assignment
• Group formation
• Get to know each other
• Group working, rules
• Fail to plan; plan to fail
Thanks for your attention
Questions? Ask! Or email…
Etieno Enang
[email protected]