Connectivity and Innovation Activities in Global Cities: Local, Global, and Infrastructural Perspectives

Abstract

In this dissertation, I evaluate questions related to the role of connectivity in economic and innovation-related processes. Specifically, I utilize conceptual frameworks from the economic geography literature to study the relevance of internal, external, and infrastructural connectivity at a city level.In the first essay, I examine the role of intra-metropolitan connectivity of inventors and evaluate the quality of the associated innovation outputs. I focus on the fact that there exist meaningful demographic differences between people domiciled in city centers and the suburban areas and claim that these heterogeneities serve as sources of diversity and creativity. I suggest empirical evidence that the collaboration of inventors from the two different sub-regions is associated with higher quality innovation outcomes. I further study how firm heterogeneity moderates the effects of this intra-metropolitan connectivity. The findings suggest that local firms and small to mid-sized firms (SMEs) enjoy more benefits because foreign firms and large firms are exploiting their own global network. This paper provides both managerial and practical implications that a metropolitan area may improve its quality of innovation outputs by taking advantage of the urban-suburban connectivity among the inventors. In the second essay, I provide specific guidelines to city planners to evaluate the external connectivity of the associated city. Cities are industry hotspots, playing vital roles as centers of economic development. Each city has different location-specific advantages that can foster different core industries and firms, participating in diverse activities within a global value chain system. Given the increasing rate of globalization at the metro level, it has become paramount for cities to establish and develop economic partnerships with other cities to further growing their regional economies. However, few city planners have clear directions in choosing partner cities, and the decisions are rarely based on appropriate data analysis. Based on the Brookings Institution’s Global City Initiative 2.0 project, and after enhancing it with additional data analyses, I introduce a set of step-by-step guidelines to city planners for finding global partner cities. To provide an actual case, I share our own anecdote regarding how Philadelphia chose potential partner cities in order to attract more FDI in its biopharmaceutical sector and foster innovation activities. I also present evidence that the inadequate ability of local firms to source knowledge from international markets associates with relatively weak economic performance. The comprehensive analyses of the city’s role in the global value chain include from the upstream (Research and Development) and the midstream (FDI, imports, international joint ventures) to the downstream (exports). This case-based paper provides practical implications to city planners by providing ways of understanding the broad global value chain with which the city is involved. In the third essay, I assess the relationship between soft networks and hard networks of global cities. Public transportation systems (PTS) have been developed along with the associated metropolitan area. Scholars in urban studies have emphasized the important roles of PTS in connecting diverse people, regions, activities, and socio-economic consequences. In this paper, I examine the relationship between public transportation systems and the innovation network in four major U.S. cities in the northeast - New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. I graphically show that inventor locations, as well as their connectivity, are established along with the city’s public transportation networks. I further stipulate that this relationship has been seriously undermined by the recent pandemic – COVID-19. Even though it is too early to draw a conclusion, I advance propositions that predict how the relationship between public transportation network and inventor connectivity will be changed followed by the pandemic. In conclusion, I claim that a metropolitan area’s internal, external, and infrastructural network significantly affects its competitiveness. Throughout this dissertation, I confirm that both hard networks and soft networks are key to enhancing the economic and innovative performance of the city.