Analysing the spatial manifestation of sustainability-engaged inter-firm networks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Sebastian Schmidt, Umut Nefta Kanilmaz, Milad Abbasiharofteh, Bernd Resch · Spatial Economic Analysis · 2025
Sustainability engagement is increasingly crucial for companies. While the importance of collaboration has been addressed, the spatial aspects remain understudied in this context. This paper proposes a methodology to use hyperlinks between corporate websites to model collaboration networks. We used centrality measures to compare the hyperlink network for sustainability-engaged firms with non-engaged firms. Furthermore, we investigated the spatial manifestation of these networks through a community detection at the county-level. Our results showed a higher density of the sustainability-engaged network and a higher importance of urban centres. We identified similar spatial patterns for network substructures, often aligning with administrative borders.