Capital-intensity segmentation and urban enclave formation in an advanced peripheral economy: Evidence from Timișoara,Romania

Abstract

The study investigates how an export-led growth model may take organisational form at the urban scale using firm-level data from Timișoara. Logistic models, ownership-network analysis, and Exponential Random Graphs Models (ERGMs) are applied to identify organisational patterns in 3829 firms. The results sketch a dual structure: a transnational enclave handling engineering, coordination, and digital tasks, and a domestic sphere geared towards labour reproduction, finance, and asset mobilisation. Foreign-owned firms cluster in capital- and skill-intensive segments and form tightly knit ownership fields; domestic firms sit in fragmented organisational niches centred on construction, real estate, healthcare, and education. Sectoral trajectories show how domestic circuits soak up enclave-generated incomes through financial, medical, educational, and property channels. The findings support mechanism-based accounts of dependent upgrading and indicate that advanced peripheral regions may stabilise export-led growth through institutional arrangements that separate enclave coordination from domestic reproduction circuits.