The Oxford Handbook of Spatial Diversity and Business Economics

The Oxford Handbook of Spatial Diversity and Business Economics provides academics, researchers, and advanced students in various disciplines - such as business, economics, and geography - with an overview of the role of diversity in modern advanced economies. For a long time, research from different areas has suggested that diversity is a critical factor in creativity, knowledge generation, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the level of organizations, cities, regions, and whole countries.

The chapters in this handbook deal with some of these issues in different ways and add to the existing knowledge on the role of diversity for various economic phenomena. The 16 chapters are organized into the following sections: 1) Diversity and place development: theory and policy development, 2) Workforce and labour market diversity, 3) Diversity and entrepreneurship, and 4) Regional diversity, innovation, and productivity. Furthermore, the introductory chapter of the book provides an overview of some of the main arguments on diversity in theoretical as well as empirical literature that puts the chapter contributions in context.

Introducing the topic of diversity: creativity, knowledge production, innovation, entrepreneurship, and growthDiversity and place development: theory development1. Cognitive distance, diversity, focus, and trust in geography, Bart Nooteboom2. Designing smart specialization policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?, Ron Boschma3. Democracy and the strategic management of place, David B. Audretsch4. Translating specialist versus diversified business models into spatial planning? Dark limitations and lighter inspirations, Philip CookeWorkforce and labour market diversity5. Age diversity in firms and its relation to wages: evidence from Germany, Mikaela Backman and Stephan Brunow6. Workplace diversity and innovation performance: current state of affairs and future directions, Christian R. Østergaard and Bram Timmermans7. 'Demographic Tailwind' from East Germany? How apprenticeship opportunities of foreign youth in West Germany depend on East German apprentices, Oskar Jost, Holger Seibert, and Mirko Wesling8. Diversity, complexity, or the relatedness of occupations: what drives industrial and regional development?, Tom Broekel, Rune Dahl Fitjar, and Silje Haus-ReveDiversity and entrepreneurship9. Analysing diversity in entrepreneurial finance across entrepreneurial ecosystems, Ross Brown and Augusto Rocha10. Explaining spatial diversity in entrepreneurship: the role of knowledge and cultural diversity, Alessandra Colombelli, Anna D'Ambrosio, and Valentina Meliciani11. Collaborative work spaces, diversity, and regional entrepreneurship growth: a conceptual review, Julian Waters-Lynch and Sam Tavassoli12. Triggered explorers and entrepreneurial embedded expanders: multiple paths to spatial expansion by service intermediaries, Ram Mudambi and Agnieszka NowinskaRegional diversity, innovation, and productivity13. Regional cultural diversity and firm innovation - important effects of heterogeneity or merely sorting?, Annekatrin Niebuhr and Jan Cornelius Peters14. Diversity and spatial productivity growth, Roberto Basile, Gloria Cicerone15. More ways to Rome: the agglomeration and firm productivity relationship through a configurational lens, Daniël Speldekamp, Joris Knoben, and Frank van Oort16. Spatial diversity, firm heterogeneity, and economic performance, Giulio Cainelli, and Roberto Ganau