What network orientation supports the development of a Resilient City? Evidence from the innovation systems of eighty-seven cities

Abstract

It is critical to understand how and why a city's economy rises or falls, especially when an abrupt change is triggered. Not all cities are able to maintain economic sustainability and resilience at the same time they support industrial vigour and innovation activities. This study reviews data collected from eighty-seven cities worldwide to understand how they were able to regain and extend their technological venturing momentum and reinforce their resilience following adverse economic events. It examines patenting indexes derived from the regional innovation system (RIS) of each city. Our difference-in-differences analysis identifies the innovation dynamics of cities in OECD countries, revealing their ability to lay a local knowledge base and to command cross-regional knowledge networks. Our study found that this highly resilient framework surprisingly demonstrated a clear downtrend after the Dotcom Bubble crisis. In contrast, many cities in BRICS and developing countries are relatively behind in terms of both their ability to command the local knowledge base and progress in developing regional and interregional networks. Our resilience analysis breaks new ground in the understanding of regional system orientations and the development context required for a city to maintain resiliency and support its ability to quickly recover from an adverse event.