Linking knowledge-intensive firm locations with the urban structure of the city of Munich

Abstract

: Knowledge-intensive location decisions follow different logics on different scales to optimise their value-creation processes across space. However, the resilience and innovation capacity of the economy and society face structural challenges of deglobalisation, decarbonisation, demographics and digitalisation. At the same time, the demand for knowledge-intensive workers is increasing. The location choices of firms are confronted with rapidly altering market forces. The growing demand-side power of the workforce – and their location preferences – challenge firms and cities to rethink the use and design of space and neighbourhoods. Against the backdrop of this interdependence between strategic location choice and the increasing demand power of knowledge-intensive workers, we examine which locations and thus which spaces are chosen in the Functional Urban Area of Munich and Freising and how this choice has changed over a 10-year period. We assume that, depending on the knowledge base of the firm, the location preferences will differ from each other. We try to elucidate this process of transformation by linking a multi-scalar perspective on firm locations with georeferenced data for each firm location. This relational approach bridges the functional location choice logic of multi-location multi-branch firms in the knowledge economy with spatial attributes at the neighbourhood level, which we use as a spatial interpretive background. The strong preference for easy access to public spaces, urban amenities and mixeduse areas are interrelated through multi-scalar change processes at various inter-scalar levels and thus may alter the urban scale and, eventually, the wider city-regional scale. The findings will enable local planning and real estate development strategies to reconcile the acute transformation needs of firm locations with integrative urban development in order to create added spatial value for the entire city.