Creative cities tend to generate higher levels of innovation and economic growth as well as be vi... more Creative cities tend to generate higher levels of innovation and economic growth as well as be vibrant places to live. Many cities in the world have adopted the creative city label to realise these benefits. It is not certain, and in fact disputed by authors such as Richard Florida (2017), that creative cities will also show high levels of inclusion. Inclusiveness is a multi-dimensional concept that needs to be unbundled before its connection with creativity is firmly established. Various tensions can arise when cities decide to adopt both creative city and inclusive city branding and urban policy initiatives. This paper studies these tensions in formulating responses to two main questions: A) How can the concepts 'creative city' and 'inclusive city' be operationalised, measured, and related to each other? and B) How do cities that adopt these two city labels implement them in their city branding and policy initiatives? What can we say about the internal consistency of these brands and policies? We have chosen Dubai, Amsterdam, and Toronto as case studies since all three enjoy good reputations in both creativity and inclusion in their respective continents and contexts. Our study indicates that cities promise more than they deliver, that creativity matches some aspects of inclusion, but contradicts others. Moreover, in case of tension, creativity always prevails over inclusion, whereby economic interests come first, and only aspects of inclusion that add to or are at least not in conflict with creativity tend to be honoured. Finally, in each of the three cities, the 'couleur locale' can clearly be observed in terms of the aspects of inclusion that are emphasised, and which tend to be disregarded.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) m... more Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) models affect place branding (PB) performance in Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach In hierarchical administrative systems, central governments exert control on PB, influencing its effectiveness. While PB as such is widely studied, the effect of MLG on PB performance in centralized administrative systems remains understudied. The study is approached as a multiple case study of nine cities. Findings The study reveals that different MLG models indeed affect PB performance differently. Direct access to central leadership and resources boosts branding performance, while privatization promotes flexibility with similarly positive effects. Study findings, furthermore, show that some cities are considered too big to fail. Cities such as Riyadh and Neom are of prime importance and receive plenty of resources and leadership attention, while others are considered peripheral, are under-resourc...
Foreign direct investment is a major indicator of global trade and economic growth for the countr... more Foreign direct investment is a major indicator of global trade and economic growth for the country. These investments stand for a global capital and resource flow that could have a major impact on the host cities economy growth while earning a prosperous finical return. However, FDI also brings other unexpected effects, which the recipient countries may not foresee. After investment happened, this impact would gradually become part of the spatial characteristic of the investment location. Based on the previous studies, we understand that the influences of housing price have been well researched before. However, the full mechanism of how these factors work to affect housing price over spatial dimension and compositions still leaves a lot to be studied. In the Netherlands, there have been a limited number of studies conducted on the FDI roles in influencing the local housing prices. The Netherlands is currently undergoing a major rising of housing prices, contributed by the optimistic foresee of economic development with the contribution of FDI, but the relationship in-between has not yet fully understand. This research studies the effect of FDI on housing prices in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2015. Based on the inferential analysis, it is concluded that there is a relationship between FDI and housing price. With the panel regression calculated with spatial weights matrix and fixed effect model, we further investigate the relationship of close by neighbors' influences. The results show that with an influence of FDI, different districts' housing prices are positively correlated with each other. The investment counts from foreign countries positively relate to the investment location's housing price.
This paper discusses and analyses the path dependence of open and closed local innovation systems... more This paper discusses and analyses the path dependence of open and closed local innovation systems in developing countries. Path dependence entails that territorial economic outcomes evolve as a consequence of their own history. The paper aims to show that differences and inefficiencies in local innovation systems can be explained based on the contingency and irreversibility of territorial events, the inflexibility of innovation systems, path inefficiencies and sequencing of events. Innovation systems are defined as more-or-less coherent matrices of institutions impacting on innovation. Open innovation systems enable firms to acquire, combine and exploit knowledge on both products and processes from multiple local and global knowledge sources. Empirically, I analyse three contrasting case studies of low technology exports: Yiwu (China Commodity City), which mass produces low tech products at reducing profit margins; Cape Town, which produces a small number of high-priced designed pro...
Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating va... more Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating value added per person and in providing a better quality of life. However, a large part of the city – the informal sector – performs much worse. This paper assesses the state of informality in Addis Ababa based on a broad definition, considering informal businesses, employment, housing, land services. We conclude that all households take part in informality as consumers and/or producers, with very high levels of informality in employment, services, land and housing. Informal businesses contribute 26 % of urban employment, with relatively low and decreasing value added per person. The informal sector comprises those in exclusionary informality – where the poor resort to informality as a last resort – and those in voluntary informality – where businesses and households opt for informality based on a cost-benefit analysis. Most informality in Addis Ababa is exclusionary. The small group of bu...
Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating va... more Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating value added per person and in providing a better quality of life. However, a large part of the city – the informal sector – performs much worse. This paper assesses the state of informality in Addis Ababa based on a broad definition, considering informal businesses, employment, housing, land services. We conclude that all households take part in informality as consumers and/or producers, with very high levels of informality in employment, services, land and housing. Informal businesses contribute 26% of urban employment, with relatively low and decreasing value added per person. The informal sector comprises those in exclusionary informality – where the poor resort to informality as a last resort – and those in voluntary informality – where businesses and households opt for informality based on a costbenefit analysis. Most informality in Addis Ababa is exclusionary. The small group of busi...
Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating va... more Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating value added per person and in providing a better quality of life. However, a large part of the city – the informal sector – performs much worse. This paper assesses the state of informality in Addis Ababa based on a broad definition, considering informal businesses, employment, housing, land services. We conclude that all households take part in informality as consumers and/or producers, with very high levels of informality in employment, services, land and housing. Informal businesses contribute 26% of urban employment, with relatively low and decreasing value added per person. The informal sector comprises those in exclusionary informality – where the poor resort to informality as a last resort – and those in voluntary informality – where businesses and households opt for informality based on a costbenefit analysis. Most informality in Addis Ababa is exclusionary. The small group of busi...
Despite its prominence, scale and dynamism, the informal economy is viewed as remnant of a tradit... more Despite its prominence, scale and dynamism, the informal economy is viewed as remnant of a traditional economic order that needs to be systematically reduced and eventually eradicated. Only in the past few decades has a promising strand of research emerged to explore the marked heterogeneity among entrepreneurs along the formal-informal continuum and the existence of ambitious entrepreneurs committed to business growth. These entrepreneurs combine their ambitions with the pervasive informality in their society; they make both informal transactions but register their firms. We adopt a critical position of the formal-informal dichotomy. We are guided by the question of how ambitious entrepreneurs find the support in entrepreneurial ecosystems characterised by pervasive informality to further innovation. We contend that informality is embedded in entrepreneurial ecosystems at the meso-level. We contribute an analytical framework that accommodates the diversity of entrepreneurs as they, deal with, and maintain varying levels of formality and informality in infinite combinations that are compatible and conducive to business growth.
markdownabstractThe objective of this study is to identify how evolving institutional regimes exp... more markdownabstractThe objective of this study is to identify how evolving institutional regimes explain incremental innovation of craft exporters in emerging economies. Institutional regimes are sets of similarly featured rules, and the actors that produce and reproduce them. The handicraft sector is an under-studied innovative growth industry in emerging economies. Innovations range from new product designs to new production processes and the application of new marketing technologies. These innovations are new to the sector, territory and/or firm, but generally not new to the world.
All over the world, urban communities take initiative in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic... more All over the world, urban communities take initiative in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study conducts a literature review and an international exploratory study in order to identify pathways within which Community Resilience Initiatives (CRIs) emerge within different governance contexts. The CRIs target vulnerable communities, which are hard to reach. Our study results identify four pathways: (1) informal bottom-up community initiatives; (2) formal community initiatives emerging out of existing community-based initiatives; (3) initiatives of external actors, often NGOs, universities or governments and (4) networks of organisations whom together initiate action in response to COVID-19. The pathways lead to different types, scales and complexities of the initiatives. However, all face similar barriers related to funding, weak networks and limited cooperation. CRIs often perceive the government agencies to be unreliable and unsupportive which in turn also hampers CRI’s...
Creative cities tend to generate higher levels of innovation and economic growth as well as be vi... more Creative cities tend to generate higher levels of innovation and economic growth as well as be vibrant places to live. Many cities in the world have adopted the creative city label to realise these benefits. It is not certain, and in fact disputed by authors such as Richard Florida (2017), that creative cities will also show high levels of inclusion. Inclusiveness is a multi-dimensional concept that needs to be unbundled before its connection with creativity is firmly established. Various tensions can arise when cities decide to adopt both creative city and inclusive city branding and urban policy initiatives. This paper studies these tensions in formulating responses to two main questions: A) How can the concepts 'creative city' and 'inclusive city' be operationalised, measured, and related to each other? and B) How do cities that adopt these two city labels implement them in their city branding and policy initiatives? What can we say about the internal consistency of these brands and policies? We have chosen Dubai, Amsterdam, and Toronto as case studies since all three enjoy good reputations in both creativity and inclusion in their respective continents and contexts. Our study indicates that cities promise more than they deliver, that creativity matches some aspects of inclusion, but contradicts others. Moreover, in case of tension, creativity always prevails over inclusion, whereby economic interests come first, and only aspects of inclusion that add to or are at least not in conflict with creativity tend to be honoured. Finally, in each of the three cities, the 'couleur locale' can clearly be observed in terms of the aspects of inclusion that are emphasised, and which tend to be disregarded.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) m... more Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) models affect place branding (PB) performance in Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach In hierarchical administrative systems, central governments exert control on PB, influencing its effectiveness. While PB as such is widely studied, the effect of MLG on PB performance in centralized administrative systems remains understudied. The study is approached as a multiple case study of nine cities. Findings The study reveals that different MLG models indeed affect PB performance differently. Direct access to central leadership and resources boosts branding performance, while privatization promotes flexibility with similarly positive effects. Study findings, furthermore, show that some cities are considered too big to fail. Cities such as Riyadh and Neom are of prime importance and receive plenty of resources and leadership attention, while others are considered peripheral, are under-resourc...
Foreign direct investment is a major indicator of global trade and economic growth for the countr... more Foreign direct investment is a major indicator of global trade and economic growth for the country. These investments stand for a global capital and resource flow that could have a major impact on the host cities economy growth while earning a prosperous finical return. However, FDI also brings other unexpected effects, which the recipient countries may not foresee. After investment happened, this impact would gradually become part of the spatial characteristic of the investment location. Based on the previous studies, we understand that the influences of housing price have been well researched before. However, the full mechanism of how these factors work to affect housing price over spatial dimension and compositions still leaves a lot to be studied. In the Netherlands, there have been a limited number of studies conducted on the FDI roles in influencing the local housing prices. The Netherlands is currently undergoing a major rising of housing prices, contributed by the optimistic foresee of economic development with the contribution of FDI, but the relationship in-between has not yet fully understand. This research studies the effect of FDI on housing prices in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2015. Based on the inferential analysis, it is concluded that there is a relationship between FDI and housing price. With the panel regression calculated with spatial weights matrix and fixed effect model, we further investigate the relationship of close by neighbors' influences. The results show that with an influence of FDI, different districts' housing prices are positively correlated with each other. The investment counts from foreign countries positively relate to the investment location's housing price.
This paper discusses and analyses the path dependence of open and closed local innovation systems... more This paper discusses and analyses the path dependence of open and closed local innovation systems in developing countries. Path dependence entails that territorial economic outcomes evolve as a consequence of their own history. The paper aims to show that differences and inefficiencies in local innovation systems can be explained based on the contingency and irreversibility of territorial events, the inflexibility of innovation systems, path inefficiencies and sequencing of events. Innovation systems are defined as more-or-less coherent matrices of institutions impacting on innovation. Open innovation systems enable firms to acquire, combine and exploit knowledge on both products and processes from multiple local and global knowledge sources. Empirically, I analyse three contrasting case studies of low technology exports: Yiwu (China Commodity City), which mass produces low tech products at reducing profit margins; Cape Town, which produces a small number of high-priced designed pro...
Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating va... more Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating value added per person and in providing a better quality of life. However, a large part of the city – the informal sector – performs much worse. This paper assesses the state of informality in Addis Ababa based on a broad definition, considering informal businesses, employment, housing, land services. We conclude that all households take part in informality as consumers and/or producers, with very high levels of informality in employment, services, land and housing. Informal businesses contribute 26 % of urban employment, with relatively low and decreasing value added per person. The informal sector comprises those in exclusionary informality – where the poor resort to informality as a last resort – and those in voluntary informality – where businesses and households opt for informality based on a cost-benefit analysis. Most informality in Addis Ababa is exclusionary. The small group of bu...
Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating va... more Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating value added per person and in providing a better quality of life. However, a large part of the city – the informal sector – performs much worse. This paper assesses the state of informality in Addis Ababa based on a broad definition, considering informal businesses, employment, housing, land services. We conclude that all households take part in informality as consumers and/or producers, with very high levels of informality in employment, services, land and housing. Informal businesses contribute 26% of urban employment, with relatively low and decreasing value added per person. The informal sector comprises those in exclusionary informality – where the poor resort to informality as a last resort – and those in voluntary informality – where businesses and households opt for informality based on a costbenefit analysis. Most informality in Addis Ababa is exclusionary. The small group of busi...
Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating va... more Ethiopian cities play an increasingly important role in economic development, both in creating value added per person and in providing a better quality of life. However, a large part of the city – the informal sector – performs much worse. This paper assesses the state of informality in Addis Ababa based on a broad definition, considering informal businesses, employment, housing, land services. We conclude that all households take part in informality as consumers and/or producers, with very high levels of informality in employment, services, land and housing. Informal businesses contribute 26% of urban employment, with relatively low and decreasing value added per person. The informal sector comprises those in exclusionary informality – where the poor resort to informality as a last resort – and those in voluntary informality – where businesses and households opt for informality based on a costbenefit analysis. Most informality in Addis Ababa is exclusionary. The small group of busi...
Despite its prominence, scale and dynamism, the informal economy is viewed as remnant of a tradit... more Despite its prominence, scale and dynamism, the informal economy is viewed as remnant of a traditional economic order that needs to be systematically reduced and eventually eradicated. Only in the past few decades has a promising strand of research emerged to explore the marked heterogeneity among entrepreneurs along the formal-informal continuum and the existence of ambitious entrepreneurs committed to business growth. These entrepreneurs combine their ambitions with the pervasive informality in their society; they make both informal transactions but register their firms. We adopt a critical position of the formal-informal dichotomy. We are guided by the question of how ambitious entrepreneurs find the support in entrepreneurial ecosystems characterised by pervasive informality to further innovation. We contend that informality is embedded in entrepreneurial ecosystems at the meso-level. We contribute an analytical framework that accommodates the diversity of entrepreneurs as they, deal with, and maintain varying levels of formality and informality in infinite combinations that are compatible and conducive to business growth.
markdownabstractThe objective of this study is to identify how evolving institutional regimes exp... more markdownabstractThe objective of this study is to identify how evolving institutional regimes explain incremental innovation of craft exporters in emerging economies. Institutional regimes are sets of similarly featured rules, and the actors that produce and reproduce them. The handicraft sector is an under-studied innovative growth industry in emerging economies. Innovations range from new product designs to new production processes and the application of new marketing technologies. These innovations are new to the sector, territory and/or firm, but generally not new to the world.
All over the world, urban communities take initiative in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic... more All over the world, urban communities take initiative in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study conducts a literature review and an international exploratory study in order to identify pathways within which Community Resilience Initiatives (CRIs) emerge within different governance contexts. The CRIs target vulnerable communities, which are hard to reach. Our study results identify four pathways: (1) informal bottom-up community initiatives; (2) formal community initiatives emerging out of existing community-based initiatives; (3) initiatives of external actors, often NGOs, universities or governments and (4) networks of organisations whom together initiate action in response to COVID-19. The pathways lead to different types, scales and complexities of the initiatives. However, all face similar barriers related to funding, weak networks and limited cooperation. CRIs often perceive the government agencies to be unreliable and unsupportive which in turn also hampers CRI’s...
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