University‐industry links and the determinants of their spatial scope: A study of the knowledge intensive business services sector

This paper examines the determinants of the spatial scope of collaborative linkages between knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) firms and universities in the UK. Drawing on data on knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs), it is found that the geographic scope of these linkages is determined by a complex mix of the particular characteristics of firms and universities, as the well the location of the firms. In particular, proximity increases with the participation of smaller firms, and firms located within areas with higher densities of KIBS employment. In contrast, the participation of larger firms or a university with greater levels of research activity increases the geographic scope of a linkage.     

Impacts of transit and walking amenities on robust local knowledge economy

As of 2013, knowledge economy has held more than 10% of U.S. employment, generated nearly 20% of national GDP and expect to increase to 25% during the next 20 years. Likewise, Eurostat 2020 aims to increase investment in Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) to bypass the competitors, Japan and the U.S. As the result, investigating the determinants of robust knowledge economy is a continuing concern between city scholars, planners and leaders. To date, several locational and non-locational factors have been found to be influential. For instance, transit service, walkable street networks and dense neighborhoods that provide walkable access to urban amenities are the location preferences for the creative class. Creative class, in turn, attracts KIBS, and produces innovation which are all contributive to the knowledge-based economic vitality. While such trend is widely supported by the theoretical efforts, there is little empirical evidence on these complex multidimensional relationships and hence this study seeks to investigate both direct and indirect impacts of transit and walking amenities on the robust local knowledge economy. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we developed a comprehensive model that accounts for KIBS, creative economy and innovation productivity and investigates their locational and non-locational determinants with the particular focus on walking and transit amenities. Our results generally echo the findings of previous studies about the key role of industry clustering, place quality amenities, diversity and tolerance on the three drivers of robust local knowledge economy. We found that among all exogenous variables racial diversity and industry clustering have the most significant direct effect on innovation productivity. We also found that transit service quality and walkability contribute to a robust local knowledge economy through KIBS and creative class, but they have an adverse relationship to the innovation production of the STEM small firms. This might be due to the fact that walkability and transit access increase the property values and, therefore, make them unaffordable for small innovative firms. Our findings on the impacts of walkability and transit access on innovation productivity in vulnerable small firms call for attention to the equity aspects of innovation-supportive urban developments.     

Agglomeration of knowledge intensive business services and urban productivity

While there is considerable empirical evidence on the productivity‐enhancing effects of manufacturing agglomeration, the impacts of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) agglomeration have rarely been examined. We propose a mechanism‐based framework to study the precise channels through which KIBS agglomeration contributes to urban productivity. By estimating a model of urban productivity that incorporates agglomeration of manufacturing, KIBS and non‐KIBS using city‐level data from China, we find that KIBS agglomeration is an important source of aggregate urban productivity. The importance of KIBS agglomeration in city productivity growth is systematically related to a city's level of economic development.     

Researchers as knowledge brokers: translating knowledge or co-producing legitimacy? An urban infill case from Finland

Knowledge brokering is on the rise in various spheres of knowledge societies. The aim has been to improve the interaction between knowledge production and use. This paper analyses knowledge-brokering activities in the context of urban densification. In an institutionally ambiguous situation we organized a new kind of participatory event for enabling the public discussion on densification to grow. We interpret the event as a boundary interaction, wherein we acted as knowledge brokers. However, the question remains as to what were we actually co-producing: brokered knowledge, novel collaborative partnerships or political legitimacy for a vague planning process?     

The Spatio-Relational Nature of Urban Innovation Systems: Universities,Knowledge Intensive Business Service Firms,and Collaborative Networks

The need to better identify the spatio-relational nature of urban innovation systems and spaces is increasingly acknowledged. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to provide an enhanced understanding of the knowledge networks existing between urban Knowledge Intensive Business Service firms (KIBS) and universities, which are often key components of such systems and spaces. Drawing on an analysis of urban KIBS firms and universities in the United Kingdom, it is found that the nature of firms, their location, and the research intensity of their university partners are important determinants of the spatiality and localization of the networks they form. The results show that the smallest urban KIBS firms have the highest propensity to engage in local links with universities, suggesting that they rely most significantly on their own urban innovation system for collaborative network ties.     

Relatedness through experience: On the importance of collected worker experiences for plant performance

We demonstrate that multiple cognitive dimensions exist between employees in knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) and that these dimensions interact in their influence on plant performance. Knowledge and cognitive distance are measured as formal knowledge and industry experience. Pooled OLS regressions with year, industry, and region‐fixed effects are used to estimate the impact on plant performance. The results suggest that the commonly found negative impact of similarity in formal knowledge on plant performance may be reduced by high human capital ratios or high levels of similarity in experience. Moreover, the organizational structures associated with single‐plant and multi‐plant firms, generate different plant performance outcomes of knowledge variety.     

The bizarre bazaar: FabLabs as hybrid hubs

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the FabLab as an experimental facility for research, intervention and learning. By providing a space that affords close proximity between users, producers, technologies and materials, the FabLab affords a ‘hybrid hub’ for weaving relations between these. Borrowing the metaphor of ‘the bazaar’, we argue that FabLabs, due to their open and nonregulated character, can be seen as offering what we call a ‘bizarre bazaar’ for exchange, fabrication and knowledge creation. Based on the background of our own experiences with establishing and running FabLab RUC as an experimental learning, innovation and research environment, we discuss how ‘working through materials’ enables new forms of learning and research. We do this firstly by considering lab-based learning in design in general, and design and anthropological theory around ‘Making’ in particular. We then, secondly, move on to consider three cases for knowledge creation in a Fablab context, drawn from current work at FabLab RUC and demonstrating what we see as key potentials. Finally, and thirdly, we conclude emphasising in particular the role of proximity between researchers, students and professionals in art, technology and entrepreneurship.     

Growth of new firms and spatially bounded knowledge externalities

If localized knowledge spillovers are important, new firms will tend to locate in proximity of one another, as well as other knowledge sources, in order to capitalize on external knowledge stocks. Although theories that emphasize knowledge spillovers thus present the urban and regional character of a firm’s proximity to knowledge sources as a stylized fact, the microfoundations of economic growth in agglomerations are among the most anticipated issues in urban economic research. In this paper, we define knowledge-intensive environments along several dimensions, and analyze new firms’ survival and growth at the individual level. We apply multilevel regression to avoid potential estimation biases, and use firm-level data for newly established manufacturing and business services firms over the period of 2001–2006 in the Netherlands. We find that the urban knowledge context significantly relates to firm-level employment growth, but that this is conditioned by heterogeneous features of the firm population and knowledge externalities, including (a) industries—more in services than in manufacturing; (b) types of knowledge context—more positively related to (non-technical) innovation than to (technologically) R&D related variables; and (c) types of post entry process—different for survival and growth. We also find significant interaction effects between the growth of R&D-specialized firms with university presence.     

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Community groups from low-income neighborhoods have the most to gain from full access to data, yet the least capability to achieve that access or make use of the data once they have it. The gap is being filled by intermediaries providing access to data and assistance with analysis and policy development. These efforts are empowering community groups, allowing them to participate fully in planning and policy discussions that affect their neighborhoods. This paper explores the nature of the information providers, the services they provide to community organizations, and the challenges they face in doing so. Combining their experiences with our view of the coming technical and societal issues allows us to forecast what the future might look like. We conclude that community groups will become more self-sufficient, but will continue to need outside expertise. Since not all community groups now have access to such intermediaries, more research and development should be undertaken to support the movement.     

A conceptual framework of the impact of NPD project team and leader empowerment on communication and performance: An alliance case context

New product development (NPD) in an alliance context crosses organizational boundaries and therefore makes team and leader empowerment and communication an ever more important topic for the successful accomplishment of NPD goals. We developed a conceptual model that addresses some key questions: Under what circumstances should the project team and leader be empowered? How much empowerment? And what effects does this have on communication and NPD performance?     

The city and high-tech startups: The spatial organization of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship

Research on Schumpeterian entrepreneurship identifies new high-growth startup companies as key factors in technological innovation and economic growth. While economists have tended to focus on high-growth, high-tech startup firms as the unit of analysis, economic geographers and urbanists have examined the geographic dimensions of entrepreneurship, particularly the rise of entrepreneurial clusters and eco systems. We focus here on a particular type of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship associated with high-tech startup companies, or what we refer to as “tech-startup entrepreneurship.” We contend that the organization of such Schumpeterian entrepreneurship occurs at two spatial scales. At the macro-geographic level, it is highly clustered and concentrated in a relatively small number of global cities or metro areas. At the micro-geographic level, it is highly concentrated in distinct districts or micro-clusters within these leading cities and metro areas. To examine the geographic dimensions of tech-startup entrepreneurship across these spatial scales, we use previously unused data on venture capital-financed startups at the metropolitan and district levels. Our findings support the hypothesis that tech-startup entrepreneurship is organized across two distinct but related spatial scales, which act on entrepreneurial activity through different mechanisms. These findings suggest that local diversity and local specialization can simultaneously potentiate innovation, and that a multi-scalar approach to the geography of entrepreneurship is prudent.     

Diffusion characteristics of private sector financed innovation in Sweden

Although construction is considered to be slow in adopting new technology and new processes, innovation, research and development are performed routinely. Nonetheless, knowledge about what affects the diffusion of research results—in the context of innovations—is incomplete, limiting the effectiveness of procedures designed to evaluate project proposals. The aim is to examine the factors that can influence the diffusion of results, in this case from externally funded construction innovation projects. A Fisher's exact test is performed on six concepts derived from general innovation theory which are tested on 20 development projects. The test is used to establish the significance of the six concepts and their applicability to construction‐related innovation. The results reveal support for all six concepts, although only four of them attract a high level of significance. External lateral and vertical communication and external integration during the development phase are shown to increase the chances of successful diffusion and should therefore be assessed in project proposals.     

Urban Regeneration as Self-Organisation

Michael Batty redefines regeneration within the context of a wider system of urban reproduction. A spontaneous response to self-organisation, regeneration is a force that can just as easily manifest itself in dereliction and decline. As part of a bottom-up system, what role can there be for intervention by designers and policy-makers? Batty suggests how urban planning needs to identify key points where small change can lead to massive change for the better, so as ‘to plant seeds that do not fall on stony ground’. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Building as a Deleuzoguattarian Strata/Machinic Assemblage

Abstract

What do we mean when we say that a building is an assemblage? To answer this question, we must first decide what we mean by ‘the assemblage’ and which areas of Deleuze and Guattari’s corpus we will use. In this paper I focus on one of two kinds of assemblage from A Thousand Plateaus: the machinic assemblage. Drawing on the third chapter of this core text, I show how and why this concept should be understood as complementary yet distinct from the often-neglected concept of the strata. I then illustrate these concepts through the architectural design process by discussing the creation of a physical and functional building, acts of (architectural) expression and as a contribution to one or more architectural languages. Using this insight, I argue that architecture provides us with a way to usefully illustrate and explore some of the complex and abstract concepts within Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy.     

Technological competence leveraging projects via intermediaries: Viable means to outbound open innovation and mediated capability building?

Aiming at reaping the benefits of open innovation, a growing number of organizations utilizes innovation intermediaries as external facilitators. However, the effectiveness of such intermediaries, especially in outbound open innovation, such as leveraging existing technologies in new market opportunities, remains unclear. We aim to investigate if and how externally conducted technological competence leveraging (TCL) projects provide value to the focal organization. Based on interviews with key personnel and analysis of reports from such projects conducted in the course of several research consortia at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, we find that the projects were successful in identifying new application fields. Further, the externally conducted projects also contributed to the development of TCL-related project capabilities within the focal organization. This research also identifies a number of barriers to short- and long-term success such as lack of a company-internal perspective and project owners without management responsibilities.     

Technoparks and Technology Transfer Offices as Drivers of an Innovation Economy: Lessons from Istanbul's Innovation Spaces

Universities can significantly contribute to the regional development and innovation capability of a city if the knowledge produced in universities can be appropriately cycled back to the city in the form of technological innovation. Technology parks and technology transfer offices (TTOs), as urban knowledge and innovation spaces, are two important channels of building research platforms with enterprises where universities can disseminate knowledge. While technology parks create space for knowledge generation and innovation within a city, university TTOs play a critical role in enhancing knowledge spillover and creating new start-up firms. This paper highlights the contribution universities can make to Istanbul's potential of becoming an innovative city that houses successful urban knowledge and innovation spaces. By conducting interviews with the managers of technoparks and TTOs in Istanbul, we explore how the existence of technoparks and TTOs within a university affects the success of technology-transfer mechanisms.     

The key to sustainable urban development in UK cities? The influence of density on social sustainability

High residential density is an important element of the compact city concept alongside mixed land uses, well-connected urban layouts, and easily accessible public transport networks. However, there is little consensus on how dense ‘high-density’ residential development should be, nor on what are the impacts of such urban environments on residents. This paper attempts to address this gap in knowledge by exploring the concept of density within the context of sustainability, calling on empirical evidence conducted in the UK by the CityForm research project. This research examined the relationship between elements of urban form (including density) and sustainability. This paper specifically makes reference to the relationship between density and aspects of social sustainability, specifically social equity (i.e. access to services and facilities), environmental equity (i.e. access to and use of green/open space) and sustainability of community (including perceptions of safety, social interaction and community stability). An extensive postal questionnaire survey and series of follow-up in-depth focus groups were conducted in a number of neighbourhoods in five UK cities to examine the hypothesis that high-density neighbourhoods were less likely to support socially sustainable behaviour and attitudes than low-density ones.     

Contextual variations in perceived social values of ecosystem services of urban parks: A comparative study of China and Australia

Parks are an integral part of urban environment which provide a range of ecosystem services. While a great deal of efforts has been invested to investigate monetary and biophysical benefits of natural ecosystems, very few studies have explored socio-ecological values of urban parks. Comparative studies of ecosystem services from urban parks between multiple countries are even rarer. To address this research gap, we have compared users' perceptions of ecosystem services of two major urban parks in China (Dufu Cottage, Chengdu) and in Australia (Kings Park, Perth). Using an ecosystem services framework, we explored three key questions: (i) which ecosystem services are perceived to be most important? (ii) what are the trends of ecosystem services provided by the park? and (iii) which demographic and socio-economic factors influence users' perceptions most? We observed that there is no substantial difference in users' perceptions (in terms of importance and trend) of ecosystem services between two countries, except for microclimate service. Respondents in Dufu Cottage perceived microclimate as the most important service while in Kings Park, a number of services (e.g., aesthetic, habitat and recreational) received almost equal importance. Almost two-thirds of the respondents have perceived an increased level ecosystem services over the last five years. Various socio-demographic factors, such as gender, age, income level and frequency of visits influenced users' perceptions most significantly. These results have critical implications in designing more environmentally sensitive as well as user-oriented urban parks.