Koen Frenken
Biographic Data
| ID | 159335 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Koen Frenken |
| GIVEN NAMES | Koen |
| FAMILY NAME | Frenken |
| SIGNATURE | FRENKEN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4731-0201 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 67 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1634 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 67 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Defensive versus adaptive action: Contested path creation in the hydrogen transition in Zeeland
Sustainability Transitions (ST) literature increasingly recognizes the need to better conceptualize agency and power, specifically regarding how actors influence both path dependence and path creation. However, existing perspectives frequently under-theorize how actors actively maintain structural lock-ins or strategically mobilize resources to navigate and disrupt lock-in. To address this theoretical gap, we investigate the mechanisms shaping st…
Unpacking normativity in transformative change: A comparative analysis of directionality in Norwegian and Dutch agri-food policy (1945–2023)
Normativity in sustainability transitions requires explicit study. • We analyze policy problem frames, solutions and their underlying political-ideological values. • We show a prevalence of economic values in directionality of Dutch and Norwegian agri-food history. • Our value-based policy analysis offers a valuable contribution to unpack normativity. • Just transitions require critical reflexivity to balance social, ecological and economic value…
Fragmentation of national research systems: The case of the Netherlands
We present a statistical framework based on the gravity model to analyze inter-organizational research collaboration to assess the fragmentation of a national research system. We focus on the Dutch research system during the period 2010–2022 characterized by multiple policy changes to reduce the fragmentation and to align agendas among the key organizations: classic universities, technical universities, university medical centers, universities of…
Exploring the Economic Geographies of Sustainability Transitions: Commentary and Agenda
This commentary provides a short review of the history and current state of transition studies, and explores how a deepened exchange with economic geographers could be fostered at the geography of sustainability transitions interface along three fronts. First, we argue that a combined transitions–economic geography perspective allows elucidating how the coevolution of technologies, institutions, and actor networks creates multiscalar and spatiall…
Does social capital foster renewable energy cooperatives
In recent decades, renewable energy cooperatives have substantially increased their share of renewable energy production. The operation of these cooperatives requires collective action, potentially supported by local social capital. We investigate whether municipal-level bonding and bridging social capital explain the differences in the prevalence of renewable energy cooperatives across Dutch municipalities. We measure social capital directly fro…
Tipping the scales of the blue transition: Framing the geography of a Norwegian seafood mission
An information‐theoretic approach to the analysis of location and colocation patterns
The study of location and colocation of economic activities lies at the heart of economic geography and related disciplines, but the indices used to quantify these patterns are often defined ad hoc and lack a clear statistical foundation. We propose a statistical framework to quantify location and colocation associations of economic activities using information‐theoretic measures. We relate the resulting measures to existing measures of revealed …
Platform adaptation to regulation: The case of domestic cleaning in Europe
While online platforms were initially applauded for improving services in a range of sectors, they are currently being criticized for ignoring laws and regulations. We analyse the evolution of Helpling – the largest domestic cleaning platform company in Europe – by focusing on the ways that Helpling has adapted its platform to regulations in five national contexts (France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Using data on c…
Systemic sustainability effects of contemporary digitalization: A scoping review and research agenda
Digital technology has been understood as a General Purpose Technology (GPT) given its systemic and pervasive nature, and heralded as key to sustainability transitions. We perform a scoping review of 112 contributions to critically appraise research on the sustainability effects of contemporary digitalization. We find that many studies adopt a rather reductionist, deterministic and optimistic lens on the (potential) sustainability effects of digi…
Diffusion in small worlds with homophily and social reinforcement: A theoretical model
International audience
Replacing meat, an easy feat? The role of strategic categorizing in the rise of meat substitutes
This study investigates categories and categorization strategies in the transition towards sustainable diets. We look at the rise of meat substitutes and understand the meat substitute category as a hybrid one, covering products that are to replace meat while implicitly appealing to vegetarian/vegan diets. The category is negatively defined, solely and explicitly indicating the product to be substituted. The category's fuzzy nature presents an in…
Small wins for grand challenges. A bottom-up governance approach to regional innovation policy
Grand societal challenges as a policy target have received increasing attention in regional innovation policy. To date, concrete governance strategies to address such challenges with local solutions are underexplored. We propose a small wins approach as a new governance strategy to deal with wicked societal problems. A small wins strategy focuses on accelerating bottom-up initiatives guided by a shared mission. The aim is to activate propelling m…
Is the online gig economy beyond national reach? A European analysis
With the emergence of the online gig economy, computer-based jobs can be completed by gig workers around the world. This raises the question whether the labour market for online gigs is truly boundless as distance no longer matters. Based on gravity models, we investigate the effect of geographical, institutional and cultural distance on almost 30 000 platform hirings between 26 European countries. While we find that online gig platforms are used…
Conceptualising institutional complexity in the upscaling of community enterprises: Lessons from renewable energy and carsharing
The battle of the buzzwords: A comparative review of the circular economy and the sharing economy concepts
Circular economy (CE) and sharing economy (SE) are much discussed concepts but potential links between them have not been examined systematically so far. The concepts’ popularity coupled with a lack of definitional consensus may hinder their potential to advance sustainability transitions. Hence, the first comparative bibliometric study of these two concepts was carried out. It was found that they share notable links in the fields of sustainabili…
Institutional relatedness and the emergence of renewable energy cooperatives in German districts
This paper analyses the evolution of renewable energy cooperatives, examining all such cooperatives founded in German districts between 2006 and 2016. The rise of the cooperative form in renewable energy production is a prominent example of the strong involvement of users in market formation. We investigate the effects of ‘institutional relatedness’, arguing that renewable energy cooperatives can leverage the organizational knowledge and the legi…
On digitalization and sustainability transitions
The subsidiarity principle in innovation policy for societal challenges
While national governments are the main actors in innovation policy, we witness a proliferation of challenge-oriented innovation policies both at the subnational and the supranational level. This begs the question about subsidiarity: what innovation policies for societal challenges should be organized at subnational, national and supranational levels? We provide arguments that innovation policies aimed to solve societal challenges, such as climat…
Conceptualizing the Gig Economy and Its Regulatory Problems
The advent of online platforms has been considered to be one of the most significant economic changes of the last decade, with their emergence reflecting a longer trend of increasing contingent work, labor market flexibility, and outsourcing work to independent contractors. In this article, we conceptualize the so‐called gig economy along four dimensions, namely, online intermediation, independent contractors, paid tasks, and personal services. U…
The pricing of open access journals: Diverse niches and sources of value in academic publishing
Open access (OA) publishing has created new academic and economic niches in contemporary science. OA journals offer numerous publication outlets with varying editorial philosophies and business models. This article analyzes the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) ( n = 12,127) to identify characteristics of OA academic journals related to the adoption of article processing charge (APC)-based business models, as well as the price points of jo…
A typology of scientific breakthroughs
Scientific breakthroughs are commonly understood as discoveries that transform the knowledge frontier and have a major impact on science, technology, and society. Prior literature studying breakthroughs generally treats them as a homogeneous group in attempts to identify supportive conditions for their occurrence. In this paper, we argue that there are different types of scientific breakthroughs, which differ in their disciplinary occurrence and …
Geography of scientific knowledge: A proximity approach
Proximity among scientists in social, cognitive, and physical dimensions promotes the sharing of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge helps scientists to understand the credibility of papers they read and to use the results in subsequent research. Hence, given the proximity among scientists in social, cognitive, and physical dimensions, one can predict patterns of diffusion in science. However, for controversial knowledge claims to become replicated,…
The study of institutional entrepreneurship and its implications for transition studies
Innovations accompanying transitions often prompt institutional change if they do not match with existing institutions. Transition studies started to incorporate institutional dynamics into their research, but efforts hitherto remain underdeveloped. In this paper, we systematically review the institutional entrepreneurship literature. Based on a reading of 153 empirical cases, we identify trends and biases in the literature and we distil a number…
Weak spots for car-sharing in The Netherlands? The geography of socio-technical regimes and the adoption of niche innovations
A geographical analysis of sustainability transitions allows one to better understand the emergence and upscaling of sustainable innovations. We first theorize about the spatial heterogeneity of regime, niche and landscape within the Multi-Level Perspective and then apply our framework to car-sharing adoption across all Dutch neighbourhoods. We distinguish between business-to-consumer and peer-to-peer car-sharing, which differ in terms of busines…
Cross-specialisation policy: Rationales and options for linking unrelated industries
In this article, we discuss how economies’ established stronghold industries can form a basis for sustaining competitiveness. As changing market circumstances demand economic strongholds to stay adaptive, their knowledge bases need to be enriched continuously. Previous research has shown that experimentation based on bridging rich knowledge bases provides important opportunities for diversification. Inspired by insights from evolutionary economic…
Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth
Frenken K., Van Oort F. and Verburg T. (2007) Related variety, unrelated variety and regional economic growth, Regional Studies 41, 685–697. In economic theory, one can distinguish between variety as a source of regional knowledge spillovers, called Jacobs externalities, and variety as a portfolio protecting a region from external shocks. It is argued that Jacobs externalities are best measured by related variety (within sectors), while the portf…
Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science? Towards an evolutionary economic geography
The paper explains the commonalities and differences between neoclassical, institutional and evolutionary approaches that have been influential in economic geography during the last couple of decades. By separating the three approaches in terms of theoretical content and research methodology, we can appreciate both the commonalities and differences between the three approaches. It is also apparent that innovative theorizing currently occurs at th…
Putting the sharing economy into perspective
Towards a theory of regional diversification: Combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies
Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. Regional Studies. This paper develops a theoretical framework of regional diversification by combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. It argues that a theory of regional diversification should not only build on the current understanding of related diversification but also account for …
Proximity and Innovation: From Statics to Dynamics
Balland P.-A., Boschma R. and Frenken K. Proximity and innovation: from statics to dynamics, Regional Studies. Despite theoretical and empirical advances, the proximity framework has remained essentially static. A dynamic extension of the proximity framework is proposed that accounts for co-evolutionary dynamics between knowledge networking and proximity. For each proximity dimension, how proximities might increase over time as a result of past k…
A theoretical framework for evolutionary economic geography: Industrial dynamics and urban growth as a branching process
We propose a framework that specifies the process of economic development as an evolutionary branching process of product innovations. Each product innovation provides a growth opportunity for an existing firm or a new firm, and for an existing city or a new city. One can then obtain both firm size and city size distributions as two aggregates resulting from a single evolutionary process. Gains from variety at the firm level (economies of scope) …
Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Technological Breakthroughs: An analysis of US State-Level Patenting
Castaldi C., Frenken K. and Los B. Related variety, unrelated variety and technological breakthroughs: an analysis of US state-level patenting, Regional Studies. This paper investigates how variety affects the innovation output of a region. Borrowing arguments from theories of recombinant innovation, it is expected that related variety will enhance innovation as related technologies are more easily recombined into a new technology. However, it is…
The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography
Following last decade’s programmatic papers on Evolutionary Economic Geography, we report on recent empirical advances and how this empirical work can be positioned vis-à-vis other strands of research in economic geography. First, we review studies on the path dependent nature of clustering, and how the evolutionary perspective relates to that of New Economic Geography. Second, we discuss research on agglomeration externalities in Regional Scienc…
The geographical and institutional proximity of research collaboration
Institutional entrepreneurship in the platform economy: How Uber tried (and failed) to change the Dutch taxi law
The study of institutional entrepreneurship and its implications for transition studies
Innovations accompanying transitions often prompt institutional change if they do not match with existing institutions. Transition studies started to incorporate institutional dynamics into their research, but efforts hitherto remain underdeveloped. In this paper, we systematically review the institutional entrepreneurship literature. Based on a reading of 153 empirical cases, we identify trends and biases in the literature and we distil a number…
Industrial Dynamics and Clusters: A Survey
Frenken K., Cefis E. and Stam E. Industrial dynamics and clusters: a survey, Regional Studies. This paper reviews the literature on clusters and their effects on the entry, exit and growth of firms as well on the evolutionary dynamics underlying the process of cluster formation. This extensive review shows that there is strong evidence that clusters promote entry, but little evidence that clusters enhance firm growth and firm survival. From a num…
Some Notes on Institutions in Evolutionary Economic Geography
Within the evolutionary economic geography framework, the role of institutions deserves more explicit attention. We argue that territorial institutions are to be viewed as orthogonal to organizational routines since each territory is characterized by a variety of routines and a single firm can apply its routines in different territorial contexts. It is therefore meaningful to distinguish between institutional economic geography and evolutionary e…
On digitalization and sustainability transitions
Innovation, spillovers and university-industry collaboration: An extended knowledge production function approach
This article analyses the effect of knowledge spillovers from academic research on regional innovation. Spillovers are localized to the extent that the underlying mechanisms are geographically bounded. However, university–industry collaboration—as one of the carriers of knowledge spillovers—is not limited to the regional scale. Consequently, we expect spillovers to take place over longer distances. The effect of university–industry collaboration …
Conceptualising institutional complexity in the upscaling of community enterprises: Lessons from renewable energy and carsharing
Branching innovation, recombinant innovation, and endogenous technological transitions
The Geography of Internet Infrastructure: An Evolutionary Simulation Approach Based on Preferential Attachment
In this paper, the evolution of infrastructure networks is modelled as a preferential attachment process. It is assumed that geographical distance and country borders provide barriers to link formation in infrastructure networks. The model is validated against empirical data on the European Internet infrastructure network covering 209 cities. The average path length and average clustering coefficient of the observed network are successfully simul…
Institutional relatedness and the emergence of renewable energy cooperatives in German districts
This paper analyses the evolution of renewable energy cooperatives, examining all such cooperatives founded in German districts between 2006 and 2016. The rise of the cooperative form in renewable energy production is a prominent example of the strong involvement of users in market formation. We investigate the effects of ‘institutional relatedness’, arguing that renewable energy cooperatives can leverage the organizational knowledge and the legi…
Is the online gig economy beyond national reach? A European analysis
With the emergence of the online gig economy, computer-based jobs can be completed by gig workers around the world. This raises the question whether the labour market for online gigs is truly boundless as distance no longer matters. Based on gravity models, we investigate the effect of geographical, institutional and cultural distance on almost 30 000 platform hirings between 26 European countries. While we find that online gig platforms are used…
Does related variety foster regional entrepreneurship? Evidence from European regions
Several studies have identified positive effects of related variety among a region’s economic sectors on employment growth. However, the exact mechanisms through which knowledge spillovers between related sectors translate into employment growth are yet to be demonstrated. Entrepreneurship may be a possible transmission mechanism via which spillovers lead to the creation of new jobs. In this paper, we analyze novel pan-European regional survey da…
Clustering and firm performance in project-based industries: The case of the global video game industry, 1972-2007
Explanations of spatial clustering based on localization externalities are being \nquestioned by recent empirical evidence showing that firms in clusters do not \noutperform firms outside clusters. We propose that these findings may be driven by \nthe particularities of the industrial settings chosen in these studies. We argue that \nin project-based industries, negative localization externalities associated with \ncompetition grow proportionally…
Sustainability perspectives on the sharing economy
Exploring the Economic Geographies of Sustainability Transitions: Commentary and Agenda
This commentary provides a short review of the history and current state of transition studies, and explores how a deepened exchange with economic geographers could be fostered at the geography of sustainability transitions interface along three fronts. First, we argue that a combined transitions–economic geography perspective allows elucidating how the coevolution of technologies, institutions, and actor networks creates multiscalar and spatiall…
Tipping the scales of the blue transition: Framing the geography of a Norwegian seafood mission
Europeanisation of science
Data from the Science Citation Index on scientific collaborations within and between European countries are used to address the question of whether the European science system is integrating over time. It is argued that a simple comparison of the number of national collaborations and European collaborations is misleading as a means of analysing European integration, as this procedure does not control for differences in countries’ sizes. The large…
Airline Competition at European Airports
Hub‐and‐spoke networks of airlines create entry barriers at large hub airports. As a result, deregulation does not necessary lead to more competition. In this paper, airline competition at European airports in the 1990s is analysed. Results show important differences between airports, which are related to size and geography. At most airports, competition increased with the successful entrance of new competitors. Yet, competition decreased at hub …
Convergence in an Enlarged Europe: The Role of Network Cities
Using economic growth data on 1088 regions (NUTS3) we analyse the determinants of regional convergence in an enlarged Europe (EU25). We introduce a number of qualitative city classifications to test whether network cities, which operate in global trade networks and relatively independent from their hinterland, converge more quickly than other areas. Evidence suggests that, apart from the traditional determinants of growth (initial income, populat…
Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science? Towards an evolutionary economic geography
The paper explains the commonalities and differences between neoclassical, institutional and evolutionary approaches that have been influential in economic geography during the last couple of decades. By separating the three approaches in terms of theoretical content and research methodology, we can appreciate both the commonalities and differences between the three approaches. It is also apparent that innovative theorizing currently occurs at th…
A Complex Network Approach to Urban Growth
Economic geography can be viewed as a large and growing network of interacting activities. This fundamental network structure and the large size of such systems makes the complex network approach an attractive model for growth dynamics modeling. In this paper the authors propose the use of complex networks for geographical modeling and demonstrate how such an application can be combined with a cellular model to produce output that is consistent w…
A theoretical framework for evolutionary economic geography: Industrial dynamics and urban growth as a branching process
We propose a framework that specifies the process of economic development as an evolutionary branching process of product innovations. Each product innovation provides a growth opportunity for an existing firm or a new firm, and for an existing city or a new city. One can then obtain both firm size and city size distributions as two aggregates resulting from a single evolutionary process. Gains from variety at the firm level (economies of scope) …
The geographical and institutional proximity of research collaboration
Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth
Frenken K., Van Oort F. and Verburg T. (2007) Related variety, unrelated variety and regional economic growth, Regional Studies 41, 685–697. In economic theory, one can distinguish between variety as a source of regional knowledge spillovers, called Jacobs externalities, and variety as a portfolio protecting a region from external shocks. It is argued that Jacobs externalities are best measured by related variety (within sectors), while the portf…
Export variety and the economic performance of countries
The geography of collaborative knowledge production in Europe
We analyse inter-regional research collaboration as measured by scientific publications and patents with multiple addresses, covering 1316 NUTS3 regions in 29 European countries. The estimates of gravity equations show the effects of geographical and institutional distance on research collaboration. We also find evidence for the existence of elite structures between excellence regions and between capital regions. The results suggest that current …
Innovation, spillovers and university-industry collaboration: An extended knowledge production function approach
This article analyses the effect of knowledge spillovers from academic research on regional innovation. Spillovers are localized to the extent that the underlying mechanisms are geographically bounded. However, university–industry collaboration—as one of the carriers of knowledge spillovers—is not limited to the regional scale. Consequently, we expect spillovers to take place over longer distances. The effect of university–industry collaboration …
Networks and Economic Agglomerations: Introduction to the Special Issue
The New Argonauts. Regional Advantage in a Global Economy
The New Argonauts. Regional Advantage in a Global Economy, AnnALee Saxenian, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, and London (2006). 432 pp. €25.80 (hbk). ISBN 978 0 674 02201 0. AnnaLee Saxeni
Some Notes on Institutions in Evolutionary Economic Geography
Within the evolutionary economic geography framework, the role of institutions deserves more explicit attention. We argue that territorial institutions are to be viewed as orthogonal to organizational routines since each territory is characterized by a variety of routines and a single firm can apply its routines in different territorial contexts. It is therefore meaningful to distinguish between institutional economic geography and evolutionary e…
Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory
Irrigation is the most important water use sector accounting for about 70% of the global freshwater withdrawals and 90% of consumptive water uses. While the extent of irrigation and related water uses are reported in statistical databases or estimated by model simulations, information on the source of irrigation water is scarce and very scattered. Here we present a new global inventory on the extent of areas irrigated with groundwater, surface wa…
Research collaboration at a distance: Changing spatial patterns of scientific collaboration within Europe
The Spatial Evolution of Innovation Networks: A Proximity Perspective
We propose an evolutionary perspective on the geography of network formation that is grounded in a dynamic proximity framework. In doing so, we root the proximity concept in an evolutionary approach to the geography of innovation networks. We discuss three topics. The first topic focuses on explaining the structure of networks. The second topic concentrates on explaining the effects of networks on the performance of actors. The third topic deals …
The citation impact of research collaboration in science‐based industries: A spatial‐institutional analysis
The Geography of Internet Infrastructure: An Evolutionary Simulation Approach Based on Preferential Attachment
In this paper, the evolution of infrastructure networks is modelled as a preferential attachment process. It is assumed that geographical distance and country borders provide barriers to link formation in infrastructure networks. The model is validated against empirical data on the European Internet infrastructure network covering 209 cities. The average path length and average clustering coefficient of the observed network are successfully simul…
Firm entry and institutional lock-in: An organizational ecology analysis of the global fashion design industry
Few industries are more concentrated geographically than the global fashion\ndesign industry. We analyze the geography and evolution of the fashion design\nindustry by looking at the yearly entry rates at the city level. In contrast to other industry studies, we find that legitimation processes operate locally and competition processes globally. This result points to the rapid turnover of ideas in the fashion design industry on the one hand and t…
The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography
Following last decade’s programmatic papers on Evolutionary Economic Geography, we report on recent empirical advances and how this empirical work can be positioned vis-à-vis other strands of research in economic geography. First, we review studies on the path dependent nature of clustering, and how the evolutionary perspective relates to that of New Economic Geography. Second, we discuss research on agglomeration externalities in Regional Scienc…
Urban Amenities and Agglomeration Economies: The Locational Behaviour and Economic Success of Dutch Fashion Design Entrepreneurs
The spatial clustering of industries is traditionally explained by agglomeration economies benefiting co-located firms. The focus on firms rather than people has been challenged by Florida arguing that urban amenities attract creative people to certain cities. On the basis of a questionnaire, an analysis is made of the extent to which these two mechanisms affect the locational behaviour of Dutch fashion design entrepreneurs. It is found that fash…
Evolutionary theorizing and modeling of sustainability transitions
Acquisition of European research funds and its effect on international scientific collaboration
The Framework Programmes (FPs) funded by the European Commission support transnational research collaborations in order to make the European Research Area more competitive. Some have raised concerns that the FPs compromise the cohesion policies of the European Commission aimed at reducing income disparities between European regions. We investigate whether existing scientific collaborations between European Union (EU) subnational regions-as captur…
Clustering and firm performance in project-based industries: The case of the global video game industry, 1972-2007
Explanations of spatial clustering based on localization externalities are being \nquestioned by recent empirical evidence showing that firms in clusters do not \noutperform firms outside clusters. We propose that these findings may be driven by \nthe particularities of the industrial settings chosen in these studies. We argue that \nin project-based industries, negative localization externalities associated with \ncompetition grow proportionally…
Economics (45 works) · Computer Science (32 works) · Business (30 works) · Economic geography (28 works) · Political science (26 works) · Geography (24 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (20 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Regional science (15 works) · Industrial organization (12 works)