Dynamic Cities and Creative Clusters*

This paper focuses on how urban policies and the clustering of creative industries has influenced urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable under some form of intellectual property law. More specifically, this subsector encompasses software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and research and development. The cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where policy induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle; Austin; Washington DC; Dublin (Ireland); Hong Kong (China); and Bangalore (India). The key research questions motivating the paper are: What types of cities are creative? What locational factors are essential? What are the common urban policy initiatives used by creative cities? The paper first explores the importance of the external environment for innovation and places it in the larger context of national innovation systems. Based on a study of development in Boston and San Diego, the paper isolates the factors and policies that have contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. In both cities, universities have played a major role in catalyzing the local economy by generating cutting-edge research findings, pro-actively collaborating with industries, and by supplying the needed human capital. In addition, these two cities benefited from the existence of anchor firms and active industry associations that promoted fruitful university-industry linkages. Many cities in East Asia are aspiring to become the creative hubs of the region. However, their investments tend to be heavily biased towards infrastructure provision. Although this is necessary, the heavy emphasis on hardware has can lead to underinvestment in developing the talents and skills needed for the emergence of creative industries in these cities. Dynamic Cities and Creative Clusters Weiping Wu Virginia Commonwealth University In recent years, a subset of knowledge-intensive industries that are reliant on individual creativity and talent, known as creative industries, have received increasing attention. An important hallmark of these industries is the continuing innovation and development of products and processes, as often measured by the number of patents awarded. Overall, the average rate of patenting per employee in centers of creative industries is about twice as high as for all metropolitan in the United States (Cortright and Mayer 2001). These knowledge-intensive production and service activities also are almost exclusively city based, making urban places the central organizing unit of the creative economy (Florida 2002). Creative industries tend to cluster in large cities and regions that offer a variety of economic opportunities, a stimulating environment and amenities for different lifestyles. This paper focuses on the interactions of the clustering of creative industries, urban policy, and urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable under some form of intellectual property (IP) law. More specifically, the paper investigates the industries of software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and biotech research and development (R&D). Drawn primarily from the U.S., the cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where policy induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle; Austin; Washington DC; Dublin (Ireland); and Bangalore (India). The key research questions motivating the paper include: What types of cities are creative? What locational factors are essential? and What are the common urban policy initiatives used by creative cities? The paper first explores the importance of the external environment for innovation and places it in the context of a national innovation system. Based on a study of development in the selected cities, the paper then isolates the factors and policies that have contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. Next the paper presents more in-depth case studies of two successful creative cities – Boston and San Diego, followed by a discussion on whether 1 Some key indicators of innovation and creativity include patents per worker, venture capital funding per worker, fast growth firms, and initial public offerings. See Porter and Monitor Group (2001), Cortright and Mayer (2002).