Geographia Technica, Vol 13, Issue no. 1/2018, pp. 119-129
LOCALIZATION THEORY OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGGLOMERATION EFFECTS: A CASE STUDY OF THE ICT SECTOR IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Kamila TUREČKOVÁ
ABSTRACT: The localization theory of the regional development constitutes even these days the permanent groundwork for the possible explanations of the local distribution of the firms in relation to their economic prosperity and potential for the future development. In this paper, factors and contributions of the firm concentration will be theoretically defined using the theory of the core-periphery, taking into consideration their location either in the core of the region or in its periphery. The theoretical assumptions of the chosen subtheories of the group core-periphery, i.e. the theory of cumulative causation and the general theory of polarized development, will be confronted in the paper with the actual findings based on the questionnaire survey among the ICT firms in two regions of the Czech Republic, namely in The South Moravian Region and The Moravian-Silesian Region (NUTS3). The regional capital defined on the regional level of LAU1 formed the core of the region, while the periphery was formed by the remaining districts in the given region. The research confirmed that the ICT firms concentrated in the cores of the regions possess and are aware of the agglomeration effects (advantages) connected with the dominance of the positive (net) externalities combined with relatively undemanding mutual information sharing, knowledge, experience and innovation. The central agglomeration of concentrated ICT firms supports and creates conditions for the existence of the specialized (technological) infrastructure, the availability and sharing of the qualified workforce based on the advanced division of labour, and the participation in the sectoral arrangement (clusters), or more precisely in research and development centres. The discovered data unambiguously support the polarization of the chosen economic structures, specifically the economic sector of ICT, which is then reflected in the dynamic development of the innovation and the growth of investments, a highly specialized structure of workforce, the growth of living standards and the increase in the competitiveness of the given firms, and through the sector and the region leads to the growth of the competitiveness of the whole national economy.
Keywords: Core-periphery theory, Sectoral agglomeration, ICT sector, Regional Development, Czech Republic.
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