Firm performance and multi-scale territorial resources in Wallonia (Belgium): towards a model using business accounting

The research project aims to explore the relationships between firm performance and their territorial and/or location specific resources. By territorial resource, we mean the specific features of the territories that affect the ability of companies to develop their business. Our ambition is to compare different categories of territorial resources: accessibility at both, the micro and the macro level; the “prestige” of place; the economic environment; the size and the quality of workforce… The main goal is to measure the differences in terms of scales and intensity of these territorial resources. We postulate the existence of three structuring scales around the firm internal perimeter: the Walloon [regional] scale, the sub-regional scale and the scale of the site where the firm is located. This proposal presents the first model of our PhD project, using the business accounting data. First, we expose the State of Art related to the territorial resources to select variables. These variables are linked with the available data from European, Belgian and Walloon sources. Then, we lay out the methodology of this model, explaining the added value created by the Walloon firms thanks to internal factors of the Walloon firms (measured by accounting data) and to the territorial resources. Finally, we expose the data used as well as our first results.