Entrepreneurship and innovation

Entrepreneurship and innovation are important determinants of regional development. Against this background, we investigate entrepreneurial growth, competitiveness and innovation, incorporating firm- and region-specific characteristics. Special attention is paid to the interplay between firm-internal growth and development capacities and regional cluster, industry and firm size structures. One of the guiding questions is how the competitiveness and innovative capacity of firms in rural areas can be increased. Our studies take into account not only companies already established on the market, but also start-ups. We analyze factors that favor or inhibit the emergence and development of new enterprises in rural areas. Further topics of the research area are the conditions for successful business successions as well as the reasons for and the regional economic consequences of business closures. Addressing the above topics requires analyses that involve the combined use of various statistics on start-ups, patents, innovation activity and business developments.

• Rural Entrepreneurship
• Economic effects of the spatially uneven distribution of workers as well as firms
• Artists and Cultural Entrepreneurs as a resource for rural development
• Innovation and technology development in rural areas
• Artificial intelligence and regional economic development