Locations of Corporate Headquarters in Europe: Between Inertia and Co-evolution

The European Union (EU) is characterised by significant economic and technological disparities (Fagerberg & Verspagen, 1999; Midelfart-Knarvik et al., 2004; Verspagen, 2010). Even though these regional disparities within the enlarged EU have been decreasing since the early 1990s following post-socialist transformation and the European integration processes, economic and technological disparities between the most and the least advanced European regions remain very high — for example, between Brunswig with a research and development (R&D) expenditure of 7.9 per cent of the regional GDP and Lubuskie with 0.1 per cent (2009). These disparities represent a major reason behind the continuing economic inequalities and, consequently, also threaten the monetary and political integration of the EU. Technological capabilities are strongly concentrated in just a few Western European regions and cities. In 1995 the research intensity in the most advanced regions was nearly 14 times higher than the expenditures of the lowest decile and in 2009 it was still 12 times higher. The disparities between the business R&D expenditures and patent applications of the highest and lowest deciles were even higher (38 and 47 times higher, respectively; see Table 7.1).