In the context of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre “Processes of Spatialisation under the Global Condition”, the project “Innovative technology enterprises at unusual locations in Central Asia and Africa” analyses processes of spatialisation, spatial practices and networks of internationally successful, innovative and locally rooted enterprises. Our research is about the emergence and development of these companies in the context of dominant imaginations of the so-called global knowledge economy (GKE) and the inherent spatial order of ‘core’ and ‘peripheral’ regions at global scale (cf. Roberts 2009). Empirically, the project focusses on the spatial agency of innovative companies as economic actors in countries beyond the Global North and in regions outside of the large agglomerations which are often referred to as ‘hot spots’ of the global economy.