Industrial Employment Growth in Spanish Regions - the Role Played by Size, Innovation, and Spatial Aspects

d) innovative large firms areas where, even though the number of small firms is lower than
national level, the rate of innovation is greater, indicating that an innovative process is
underway, driven by large enterprises”¹⁴.

Figure 10.- Share of Industrial Small Firms versus Share of High and Medium-High
Technological Industries on Employment.

55         60         65         70         75         80         85

Share of Small Firms

There is a clear negative relationship between share of small firms and the relevance of high
and medium-high technological industries in Spanish regions. There are only two regions
classified in the milieux innovateur area, Galicia and Aragon, and no one in lagging large
firms. Most of the Spanish regions belong to traditional local districts or innovative large
firm areas.

Finally, Figure 11 provides the graph relating industrial employment growth and innovative
attitude of Spanish regions.

Five regions present a positive relationship between the share of technologically developed
industries and employment growth. Galicia and Aragon, classified on the area with higher
than average industrial employment increase and share of technological industries, are the
only two that support the assumption made in the Introduction: they are located in milieux

¹⁴ Camagni & Capello (1999)

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