Divergence of coastal cities in the Baltic region by knowledge production capabilities

Abstract

Coastal cities are the focus of academic research for being the attractors of a significant share of human, entrepreneurial, and financial resources. The advanced development of coastal territories is a widely known phenomenon called coastalization. Given the favourability of coastal zones, we assume that human intelligence accumulated in coastal cities greatly increases their intellectual capital, strengthening the knowledge production capability. Our focus is on academic knowledge, which is an important input to a territorial intellectual capital that drives innovation development via knowledge commercialization. We aim at testing the hypothesis on the superiority of coastal over the inland type of cities by their capacity to generate knowledge. The study sample is 479 cities of 10 countries located in the Baltic region with different levels of socio-economic and innovative development. Spatial scientometrics is applied as a research method for processing a large volume of bibliometric data. Research results indicate significant differences between coastal cities in their ability to undertake research and produce knowledge. Coastalization has not proven to be a determining factor for academic productivity. The overall level of innovation development of the country and the functional role of the city has a greater impact. The advantages of the coastal position are related to unique marine-related research developed in coastal cities and agglomerations with an enabling atmosphere for academic knowledge production.