I gave a presentation in urban studies conference in Helsinki. Unfortunately it's only in Finnish. Paper deals with electronic capital and economic evolution in Europe. If you want to read the extended abstract in English, you can find it in my Researchgate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313678762_E-Capital_and_Economic_Evolution_in_European_Metropolitan_Areas
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Below is the permanent link to recently published article in Cities journal. It is also the first article of my PhD thesis. Three more to go, I guess. Well, it's a start :) The picture above is from the construction phase of 18 store twin towers in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, opened now as Clarion Hotel. Every tenth of the new high rises in Finland is built in Jätkäsaari district, an inner city extension of Helsinki. It has an enormous innovative potential, according to our study below:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.01.005 Kiuru, Juho & Inkinen, Tommi (2017). Predicting innovative growth and demand with proximate human capital: A case study of the Helsinki metropolitan area. Cities. Volume 64, April 2017, Pages 9–17. Juho Kiuru a, , , Tommi Inkinen b, a University of Helsinki, Department of Geosciences and Geography, Division of Urban Geography and Regional Studies, P.O. Box 64, (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a), FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland b University of Turku, Centre for Maritime Studies, Brahea-Centre, FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland We talked about Michael Porter's cluster theory on a course of economic geography in University of Helsinki. One of the most interesting topics in Porter's article from 2000 is "clusters and new business formation". A group of students researched that phenomenon in Helsinki Metropolitan Area.
As Porter claims, research group found out that "new businesses are formed in existing clusters rather than in isolated locations". Up to 52 % of new business formation were explained by the number of existing businesses in postal code area. They analyzed also new business formation in the HMA at 250 meter cell level. Existing businesses as well as existing workplaces were statistically significant indicators also at that scale. Physical infrastructure is just one factor input in Porter's diamond approach. In their regression analysis, students pointed out that only 18 % of new business formation could be explained with different accessibility measures. Analysis was carried out at cell level. When analyzed certain industries, the explanation power raised up to 39 % in transportation and storage section, where travel time to the center of the metropolitan area with car was the only significant variable. Travel time to the center and to the airport with public transportation were significant in both knowledge based business services as well as in wholesale and retail industries. Travel time to new cargo port was not significant in any of the three examined industries. When variables considering both accessibility and existing businesses were combined, the research group got adjusted R2 values over 50 % also at 250 meter cell level. From their analyses, it is evident that new businesses cluster in existing clusters where there are already other firms and good physical infrastructure. The original course report in Finnish can be read from the homepage of our project. In my analyses of the present state, it usually some how pop out also some estimations of the future. With predictive analytics, we show one scenario of the future in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA). This map will show emerging or growing clusters of innovation as well as the demand of the professionals, i.e. areas that could attract more professionals if there were new houing in the area. Growing innovation clusters could benefit from commercial zoning or actions from business service and other officials. I (still) hope there will soon be a paper to refer to.
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Photo by Rob Hurson
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July 2018
AuthorJuho Kiuru, geographer living in Helsinki, Finland. |