METROPOLITAN REGIONS IN THE KNOWLEDGEECONOMY NETWORK ANALYSIS AS A STRATEGICINFORMATION TOOL

摘要

Since the early 1990s, regional networks have received a lot of academic and political attentionas vehicles for knowledge-based economic development. However, this powerful rhetoric has beenaccompanied by surprisingly little concrete analysis. Economic geography is only recently wakingup to the potential of network analysis for interorganisational linkages within and between regions.We discuss network analysis as a strategic information tool for regional knowledge managementand apply it to the metropolitan region of Hannover-Braunschweig-Gottingen-Wolfsburg in thenorthern German state of Lower Saxony. Producing network diagrams and parameters of networksize, density, centrality, cohesion and connectivity from a large sample of actors and linkages, oursurvey shows striking differences between different fields of competence that highlight thepotential of network analysis as a powerful tool and a necessary basis for decision-making to propelmetropolitan regions into the knowledge economy. We outline both case-specific and genericimplications for the practice of regional knowledge management. However, a few methodologicalshortcomings still call for further research to be conducted.