Exploring the Spatial Intersection of Small Firm Innovation, Urban Form, and Demographics in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive global market for human and financial capital, cities have embraced a variety of strategies to lure investment and incubate lucrative businesses and industries in situ. Among other strategies, it has been suggested that local governments can both attract and catalyze the rise of knowledge-intensive businesses and innovative startups by cultivating dense, walkable, and transit-accessible urban environments where knowledge spillovers might be more likely and creative and knowledge workers can access an abundance of consumption amenities. This intensive case study of the Washington, DC, metropolitan area explores the potential spatial associations between attributes of urban form and innovation productivity as assessed using small business innovation awards. In addition to largely corroborating previous findings indicating a strong positive spatial correlation between small and midsized firm innovation and neighborhood walkability and transit quality, the results suggest the importance of other key supportive amenities including small business incubators or accelerators and local research universities, and highlight socioeconomic and demographic disparities between innovation hot spots and cold spots.