Mid-sized City Research Articles

Intergenerational transmission of ancestry information in a mid-size city in Argentina

ABSTRACT We examined the self-reported family trees of 288 adult Argentines from a mid-size city near Buenos Aires to evaluate how intergenerational transmission of ancestry information matched (or not) anonymized estimates of continental-level genetic ancestry. Intergenerational transmission of ancestry information was inferred from the content of the anonymized family trees, and continental-level ancestries were inferred from genomic information collected from the participants. We found a high degree of concordance between genetic ancestry estimates and the transmission of ancestry information in ancestors born in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. We found the reverse in ancestors who were Indigenous American, sub-Saharan African, or their descendants. Yet, the existence of those ancestors was evident in the genetic ancestry estimates. We extrapolated the presence of such ancestries in family trees post hoc by deducing that some ancestors identified as ‘Argentine’ in family trees were likely of mixed Indigenous- and non-Indigenous-descent, and possibly also sub-Saharan African descent. We describe these findings as products of a process of attrition, in which some ancestries, but not others, have been forgotten (knowingly or unknowingly) over the course of generations, to the point that participants were unaware that ethno-racial mixing occurred within their own families.

Urban climate governance in Southeast Asian small and mid-sized cities: undermining resilience and distributing risks unevenly

ABSTRACT Secondary cities are home to most of the world’s urban populations vulnerable to climate change, yet researchers and policymakers have devoted less attention to them than large and megacities. To help address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between incomplete decentralized governance, climate change, and urban resilience. It does through the case studies of secondary cities of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Secondary cities are of importance because they are the fastest growing cities in the Global South but also because they have weaker capacity to address climate risks. Through these case studies, the paper draws comparisons between the different cases to look at the linkages between decentralization and urban resilience in secondary cities. Overall, it argues that climate governance, due to the retention of power and resources by central bureaucrats along with fragmented governance structures, and misaligned incentive structures which prioritize economic growth over climate protection have undermined resilience building and contributed to the uneven distribution of climate risks in these cities.

“We are the Green Capital”: Navigating the political and sustainability fix narratives of urban greening

With increasing attention on green(ing) cities, urban nature is used to increase liveability, to create new sectors such as tourism, and to boost international investment. What counts as desirable green intervention generally follows internationally accepted practices as cities aim for international recognition. Here, we examine the historic production of a green identity and the ways in which urban leaders have navigated local politics to enact greening. We focus on the mid-sized city Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain), the 2012 European Green Capital. Based on a critical discourse analysis of archival data and in-depth interviews, we explore the production of a green city-identity over a period of forty years and determine four key processes: (i) early good leadership with a social city being core objective of urban planning, (ii) the need for building shared goals in a context of a violent political conflict in the Basque Country, (iii) policy mobilities and thriving for becoming a green pioneer internationally, and (iv) de-politization of green and sustainability discourses. We argue that the initially perceived social green amenity - an outcome of early progressive urban democratic experimentation - that served as a unifying project across polarized political fractions turned into an economic cultural asset for economic growth, shifting from a political to a sustainability fix.

A SWMM-Based Screening Model for Estimating Wastewater Treatment Burden of Pesticides on the Urban Scale.

To estimate the treatment load of pesticides for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on an urban scale, we developed a SWMM-based screening model that integrates the mass balance of pesticides in residential soil and the storm-water runoff passing through residential lawns. Furthermore, we introduce an approximate approach that simplifies the simulation using the octanol-water partition coefficients (i.e., log KOW) of pesticides. The results indicate that the simulated transport factors (i.e., the dissipation kinetics-relevant property from the soil) of systemic pesticides (i.e., log KOW < 2.0) are constant, whereas those of non-systemic pesticides decrease with increasing log KOW, indicating that highly lipophilic pesticides are thermodynamically favored for soil absorption. By using the approximate approach, we estimated the total mass of pesticides entering the urban sewer system and the pesticide concentrations in the influent of WWTPs for a midsize city. The results indicate that the estimated concentration of systemic pesticides in the influent is ~9.2 ng L-1 and that of pesticides with log KOW values above 3.0 is below 0.84 ng L-1. The pesticide concentrations are consistent with published field data, indicating that the approximate approach can be applied as preliminary modeling tool to recommend pretreatment values for urban WWTPs. Although the model must be further validated and refined using field data, the screening method can be used to help urban planners and engineers to manage the treatment process of pesticides in WWTPs.

Emplacing category dynamics: Houselessness and the emergence of transitional micro-housing villages

Recent studies suggest a critical yet unexplored role for local places such as cities and communities in category research. In this study, I investigate how places, as the nexus of cultural, political, and material influences, can shape category dynamics, especially in the early phases of category emergence. I synthesize insights from category work with recent conceptualizations of places as geographically bounded spaces, imbued with meanings and material forms. I conducted an in-depth qualitative field study of the emergence and expansion of a new category, transitional micro-housing villages, also known as Tiny Home Villages, in Eugene, a mid-size city in the United States in 2011–2019. The study unpacks the role of nested places in triggering, enabling, and constraining actors and their work to create, legitimate, and expand a category. Specifically, I highlight the role of local material forms and how actors can mobilize local spaces, technologies, and practices to advance their goals in contested category dynamics.

City-regions and socio-economic segregation in mid-sized cities in Mexico: the cases of Oaxaca and Morelia

This article examines sociospatial segregation and poverty in two mid-sized cities in Mexico. Data on population distribution, economic activities and poverty from 1970 to 2015 were analysed, on city and regional scales. The findings show persisting segregation on a regional scale, prioritising city centres while marginalising peripheries. It is highest among economically active, working-age, elderly and poorly educated populations. Growing centralisation was identified in tertiary economic activities and units. This unequal distribution has generated scarcities and exacerbated poverty. The findings from this theoretical-methodological approach show the need to recognise the relationships between the city and the surrounding region. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0.

Environmental Assessment Of Public Recreation Spaces Of Public Parks In The City Of Knoxville, TN

Public parks provide places and amenities encouraging people to be physically active (PA). The City of Knoxville, TN, a mid-sized city in the Appalachian region, maintains 94 public parks, ranging from pocket parks to larger community parks, in which people can be active. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to profile the physical environmental attributes of this park system relative to infrastructure, aesthetics, and amenities. METHODS: An abbreviated version of the Environmental Assessment of Public Recreation Spaces (EAPRS) tool was used to measure three elements of each park (N = 94). An overall ParkScore (PS), with a possible total of 65 points, was composed of ‘Physical Activity Infrastructure’ in the park across 7 categories: trails, open spaces, pools, beaches, sidewalks, playsets, and athletic fields/courts; ‘Amenities’ captured data on quality items related to seating, restrooms, eating/drinking facilities, bike racks, parking, and signage, etc.; and ‘Aesthetics’ based on items such as the presence of meadows, streams, landscaping. EAPRS scores were compared across the types of parks and access (e.g. greenway links, WalkScore) using SAS 9.4. RESULTS: The overall PS was 15.4 (SD = 7.0). The PA infrastructure score was 5.2 (2.7), aesthetics was 2.9 (1.9), and amenities was 7.3 (3.7). Larger community parks, compared to all other parks, scored significantly higher across all EAPRS elements (p < .0001), but had the lowest access by walking or via public transportation. Natural park areas had significantly fewer elements of PA infrastructure. Amenity scores were significantly higher for community and special use parks. 25.8% of the parks were connected to greenways. These greenway-linked parks had significantly higher PS (20.9 vs. 13.4; p < .0001), PA infrastructure (6.6 vs. 4.7; p < .0039), aesthetics (4.5 vs. 2.3; p < .0001), and amenity (9.9 vs. 6.3; p < .0001) scores. CONCLUSIONS: The attributes of larger community parks are much more likely to attract people for active visits. However, as parks increase in size, fewer people may be able to access them through active transport or public transportation. Smaller neighborhood parks, which are more accessible through active transportation, could be excellent targets for park enhancement, including increases in the physical activity infrastructure.

An Interview with Britt Halvorson and Josh Reno

An Interview with Britt Halvorson and Josh Reno Jon K. Lauck JL: Where are you from? BH: I grew up in western Michigan, in Muskegon, a mid-size industrial city along Lake Michigan. But my parents have no multi-generational ties to that area and, in fact, they grew up in Sweden and Madagascar. So I've actually long been curious about the cultural matter of "from-ness" or belonging, of how people form attachments to places, and of how circulating, dominant imagery of places can be linked to projects of race and ethnicity. That is actually the focus of our book. JR: I grew up in western New York, in Walworth, which is a small, rural hamlet south of Lake Ontario and East of the City of Rochester. However, my mother's side of the family, specifically my maternal Great Grandfather, came from Council Bluffs, Iowa originally. I heard stories about his life as a cowboy, herding cattle across the states. I grew up on these stories. So when I later moved with my family to Michigan to go to graduate school in anthropology part of me felt like I was returning to the Midwest, in a sense. And this sense of the Midwestern region, a place that you think you know even if you've never been there, is part of our focus. JL to BH: How did your parents from Sweden and Madagascar end up in Muskegon? BH: They ended up in Muskegon because my father got a job teaching philosophy at Muskegon Community College. He grew up in Tolagnaro/ [End Page 171] Ft. Dauphin, Madagascar, until age 16 as the son of Norwegian-American Lutheran expats. He finished out his final year of high school in the U.S., followed by college at St. Olaf's College in Northfield, Minnesota (a traditional Lutheran school, if there was one). My mother, on the other hand, grew up in Örebro, Sweden, and she was always interested in learning languages and what we would now call cultural immersion experiences. Though she grew up in a working-class family and never had the opportunity to go to college, she was a bit fearless about uprooting herself and coming to the U.S., the only one in her family. She first came to the U.S. aboard a Scandinavian cruise line, because plane fare was too expensive, and eventually settled in northern California in the early 1960s. In the meantime, my father was pursuing a master's degree and working as a firefighter for the National Forest Service in Idaho. My parents were introduced to each other by mutual friends, an unlikely scenario to be sure, even though they had never met. JH to BH: Were your Norwegian-American Lutheran expat grandparents missionaries in Madagascar? Were they from Minnesota? Does that explain the connection to St. Olaf? BH: My paternal grandparents were Lutheran missionaries in southeast Madagascar, with my grandfather having been trained as a minister. They actually weren't from Minnesota, though they had connections there through the Lutheran church. My paternal grandmother's family had only a few generations' ties to Iowa and, before that, came to the U.S. from western Norway. And, on my paternal grandfather's side, he actually grew up in southeast Madagascar as the son of a Norwegian-American Lutheran minister. In that male line, being a clerical missionary or missionary doctor was something of a multi-generational family business, which was not entirely unusual in the broader community of American Lutherans as I later learned. Prior to that, his immediate family had connections to Washington state and Norway, only stopping in Minnesota for religious training at the Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul. JL to BH: I see you went to Albion College in Michigan? What was that like? Did you first study anthropology there? BH: I found Albion College much in the same way Josh found Cornell (though we've never compared notes on this before). I applied to schools [End Page 172] that sent me brochures in the mail, and Albion was one of them. Because of my good grades in high school, I received a substantial scholarship from Albion, the...

Intraurban socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy: a population-based cross-sectional analysis in the city of Córdoba, Argentina (2015–2018)

ObjectivesTo evaluate variability in life expectancy at birth in small areas, describe the spatial pattern of life expectancy, and examine associations between small-area socioeconomic characteristics and life expectancy in a...

A Value Approach for Home Buyers in Township Projects

Abstract: The last two decades have witnessed hectic real estate activity especially the proliferation of residential townships. Not only the metropolitans but even the mid-sized cities have adopted the apartment or commonly called the flat system of housing. The twenty-first-century house buyer wants to be in the vicinity of Malls, entertainment places, shopping areas, and gyms. Almost every middle-class household owns a car and many of them have more than one, yet want near to the workplace, education institutions, and hospitals as also a striking distance from Airport, etc. Real estate works in micro markets and the cost of apartments normally is talked about in cost/sqft. The house buyer has a set of requirements to be met in a given budget but he gets to hear and talked about huge claims, jargons, and fuzzy cost calculations. Thus, one is neither clear about the overall amenities, nor the square feet and not even the total cost quoted by different builders at the decision-making time. This paper presents enlistment of quality-of-life parameters as identified from the literature survey and the survey. Further, a Value Approach is presented that could be used for rating real estate products based on the parameters that directly impinge on the QOL (Quality of Life) of the homebuyer and the value he or she places on them

Integrating Freight and Public Transport Terminals Infrastructure by Locating Lockers: Analysing a Feasible Solution for a Medium-Sized Brazilian Cities

Integrating freight and public transport infrastructure can lead to providing economic feasibility to public transportation systems and reducing externalities related to urban freight transport. This can be achieved by sharing the infrastructure of freight and public transportation systems. Additionally, failed deliveries represent a major challenge in e-commerce. Lockers can address this problem and promote sustainable urban freight transport. This paper identified a locker network in a public transportation infrastructure. The framework considered scenarios built under the 15-min city concept, and the analysis is based on a case study in Jaraguá do Sul (Brazil, a mid-sized Brazilian city, and its conurbated area. The networks were found by solving a p-median problem, which minimised the maximum distance between the lockers and the population. The findings showed that, in the best scenario with 16 lockers, the population could reach the lockers within a 10-min cycling ride. Additionally, the results showed that the public transportation network provides a locker network to integrate freight and public transportation. The locker network is accessible to public transportation and micromobility users. With this solution, residents play an active role in last-mile deliveries. In addition, lockers can work as mini hubs for crowdshipping services. In addition to reducing urban delivery trips, this solution can encourage public transportation usage, which contributes to more sustainable cities.

O6-3 Analysis of the local health-enhancing physical activity policies in the French Riviera

BackgroundAccording to the socio-ecological model, policy is one of the levers to initiate structural and environmental changes to foster health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) promotion (Golden et al., 2015). However, little is known about local evidence to support governments in their policies to promote HEPA (Bull, 2018). Research on HEPA policies at local level seems particularly remains scant (Noël Racine et al., 2020). This study aims to carry out the collection of comprehensive information on municipal HEPA policies of the French Riviera to provide an overview of the development of these policies on this territory.MethodsMid-size cities from 2 counties of the French South Region were targeted (n = 17). In each city, a local HEPA policy analysis tool, CAPLA-Santé, was administered to key informants heading the departments of sport, health and social. CAPLA-Santé is a local policy analysis tool adapted from the national HEPA policy analysis tool (HEPA PAT version 2) developed by the World Health Organization. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and documents analysis. These empirical data were used to make an inductive analysis.ResultsA total of 10 mid-size cities were volunteered to participate. Key informants from sport (n = 10), health (n = 5) and social (n = 6) departments were interviewed. Several written HEPA policies were formalized in 6 cities, 4 of them based their policies on scientific evidences or a national policy. These policies (n = 14), were mainly from the sport (n = 8) and the health sectors (n = 4). Some cities had a department head to ensure cross-sectoral collaboration (n = 3). Key informants reported that the support of national policies, the commitment of elected officials and an important local stakeholders' network could facilitate the HEPA promotion; whereas lack of intersectoral collaboration and resources could be a limitation.ConclusionsThe results help to better understand the local HEPA policies, highlighting some barriers, facilitators and perspectives. Using a local HEPA policy analysis tool can provide evidence to support policymakers. These findings could be valuable to scale up the HEPA promotion at the local level.

Urban greenspaces promote warmer soil surface temperatures in a snow-covered city

The complex ecological and socioeconomic interactions that exist in urban areas create novel abiotic environments and novel ecosystems. Microclimates in urban areas have been studied during the summer months; however, climate change is also increasing the frequency of extreme cold outbreaks during winter. Quantifying microclimatic variation in soil surface temperatures, the level at which most plants and animals persist, can help predict the effects of climate on biota in temperate and high-latitude cities. Using fine-scale temporal and spatial data, we investigated how air temperature and snow characteristics interact with land cover and land use to drive variation in soil surface temperatures in greenspaces throughout a mid-sized city in the United States. We found that snow reduced variability in soil surface temperatures, which remained around 0 °C when snow depth was greater than or equal to 20 cm, with air temperature and snow depth interacting strongly to drive this effect. Tree cover promoted warmer soil surface temperatures regardless of snow cover, with relatively warmer soil surface temperatures in natural areas and residential yards compared to those in public landscaped areas (e.g., managed parks). In fact, under extremely low air temperatures (∼−30 °C), the warming effect of urban forests reached 4 °C, which provided substantial buffering from extreme cold. Our results highlight the potential for urban greenspaces with trees and snow to serve as refugia for organisms in the winter, and subsequently preserve essential ecosystem services provided by urban biodiversity. Consequently, urban planners should aim to maximize tree cover where possible and supplement greenspaces with vegetation (i.e. shrubs and leaf litter) that promotes snow retention during the winter.

Assessing the impacts of ridesharing services: An agent-based simulation approach

A shift from privately owned vehicles to shared mobility services can affect mobility, energy consumption, and vehicle emissions. Existing literature on ridesharing services has focused on evaluating its traffic and economic impacts. In this study, we propose an integrated framework to analyze the efficiency and environmental benefits of ridesharing on a regional scale. The framework utilizes an agent-based traffic simulation package (i.e., SUMO) to replicate traffic activities for commuting trips in a mid-size city, Chattanooga, Tennessee, based on real-world travel-demand data. We construct scenarios representing different ridesharing strategies and penetrations. The simulation and results analysis show that with a ridesharing ratio of 5%–75% over travel demand in a city scale, many (65%–75%) ridesharing travelers will experience up to a 15-min delay. About 80% of drive-alone travelers will arrive earlier compared with no ridesharing scenario. The average early arrival time would be 5.6 min for all drive-alone travelers. The results also show ridesharing services can achieve a 2%–50% reduction in total city-scale vehicle emissions and energy consumption compared with the no ridesharing scenario. The framework and results of this study can be helpful to transportation practitioners to evaluate environmental benefits when implementing ridesharing services on a city scale.

Evaluating the viability of a Tram-Train system. A case study from Salento (Italy)

Tram-Train (TT) combines features of railway and tramway systems by mean of tailored light railway vehicles. Although TT systems offer several benefits such as efficiency, effectiveness, and quality, they also incur some issues (e.g., rolling-stock design) that might discourage city administrations from implementation. Further, whilst this system is quite well-known, the related literature is still scarce and relegated to presenting qualitative descriptions of general features, technical issues, and experiments with some TT components. Detailed viability analyses of TT systems implementation in metropolitan areas and evaluation of their economic feasibility have been poorly investigated.This case study addresses previous gaps by a two-tier framework. The first - a context analysis - focuses on a city’s features and applies an analytical hierarchy process resulting in a weighted global score to assess the suitability of the specific context for a TT system. If the city achieves a positive evaluation for implementation (according to the score), then the second tier brings a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) into play to assess the project’s economic sustainability.Analysis of the Salento (Italy) metropolitan area proved to be a peculiar case study, as it presented uncommon features for TT system employment compared to ideal scenarios from the literature. Nevertheless, by the context analysis, the area resulted viable for such an innovative and interoperable transport system. Indeed, the results highlighted that resource availability and political strategies were far more relevant in the analysis than the spatial and technical features, as well as the need for improving connections. Next, two TT project alternatives were compared through the CBA, and both resulted in economically sustainable, being the net present value positive, the internal rate of return larger than the discount rate and the benefit-cost ratio larger than one. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was applied for the best alternative. It showed that TT investment costs, the marginal cost of accidents, and the demand shifted from the suburban bus and car, respectively, were reported as critical variables. Nonetheless, no switching values were registered that could realistically threaten the assessment of the economic profitability of the TT project. As far as the authors know, these results provide the first empirical evidence of the TT system’s viability and its economic feasibility in a mid-sized city based on the development of previous literature recommendations. Hence, this case study may provide a benchmark tool for policymakers, transit experts and the scientific community to assess TT projects.

Long-Term Development Perspectives in the Slow Crisis of Shrinkage: Strategies of Coping and Exiting

As a slow crisis, shrinkage is a situation where if actions are not taken to change things, a downward spiral or a long-term decline could happen. The complex, long-term nature of this crisis underlines the importance and potential of strategic approach. However, the conceptualisation of development strategy remains abstract, attributive, or focused on sectorial policies, lacking a view of their roles in the overall development. Against this context, this research investigates (1) how cities that have acknowledged shrinkage strategically organise degrowth, non-growth, and growth-promoting instruments in dealing with shrinkage, (2) what long-term development perspectives emerge out of their policies, and (3) what factors in the local context constrain their strategies. The empirical basis is a cross-national comparative case study between Den Helder and Zwickau, a Dutch and German midsize city, with a cross-sectorial view and a focus on the long-term aspects to reveal the conceptual structures of their strategies. This approach captures how and explains why the cities, as regional centres with similar attitudes towards shrinkage and comparable economic levels, adopt many similar policies but lean towards contrasting long-term perspectives—one strives to exit the crisis, the other has routinised coping with shrinkage and lacks the vision of a different future. Their differences stimulate reflection on the context and parameters for revitalisation, and their shared challenges underlines the need for theory development based on situated policymaking challenges and a more strategic approach in the development of shrinking cities.

Police Activities and Community Views of Police in Crime Hot Spots

Evidence on how hot spot policing affects community members’ views of police is very limited and inconclusive. Scholars have thus called for further study of community attitudes in hot spots to guide police in the formulation of hot spot strategies—an issue that is especially salient given recent public controversy surrounding policing, particularly in the United States. Using survey responses collected in 2018 from more than 1,000 community members living or working in more than 100 hot spots across 2 mid-sized cities in the United States, this study examines how community members’ perceptions of police activities in hot spots relate to their wider attitudes about police. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicate that community members in hot spots in both cities exhibit more positive attitudes towards police along several dimensions (e.g., trust and confidence in police, views of police legitimacy, and perceptions of police responsiveness and procedural justice) when they see more frequent patrol and when they see positive police-community interactions. They have more negative views of police when they witness higher levels of investigative and enforcement activity. The findings support hot spot policing strategies that emphasize regular, systematic patrol in hot spots, complemented by positive community engagement efforts and problem-solving work. In contrast, they imply that enhanced enforcement activity in hot spots should be used judiciously.

A Procedural Modeling Approach for Ecosystem Services and Geodesign Visualization in Old Town Pocatello, Idaho

City population has been growing rapidly worldwide due to urban expansion, which can bring negative impacts on local ecosystem services (ES). Efficient tools for urban design and visualization are essential for city planners and stakeholders to better understand the valuation impact of plans for future sustainable development. Current urban design methods are mainly based on a 2D perspective and lack vertical visualization. Although conventional 3D modeling was introduced to address these limitations, it still has some challenges, such as requiring powerful computing resources and specialized training. Procedural 3D modeling is a grammar-based set of rules that can effectively generate 3D models and enhance spatial visualization when compared with conventional 2D or 3D methods. This paper describes a framework for developing a geodesign tool in Old Town Pocatello, Idaho, USA using procedural modeling to improve planning and visualization for urban design, including (1) Geospatial data preparation in ArcGIS, (2) 3D cityscape model generation in CityEngine, and (3) interactive visualization applications for multiple platforms developed with the Unity game engine. Pocatello is a mid-sized city in southeast Idaho that faces several challenges towards integrating ecosystem services in urban design. As a case study in ecosystem service modelling, we proposed a green scenario for Old Town to demonstrate a tool where permeable surfaces were increased from 37% to 45% to help mitigate urban land surface temperature and improve stormwater management. This geodesign tool offers city planners and stakeholders an opportunity to visualize and analyze block-level scenarios in real time. The interactive applications can encourage public participation in the design process. More ES measurements can be implemented into this tool in the future. The techniques of 3D procedural modeling and ES modeling in this study are also applicable to other small to mid-sized cities worldwide.

Why do High-Status Firms Become Targets of Competitive Attacks? An Examination of Two Explanations

Competitive dynamics research has often used the AMC framework—awareness, motivation, and capability—when theorizing how different factors influence firms’ proclivities to launch competitive moves against other firms. However, this stream of research has mostly overlooked the role of social evaluations in determining which firms are targeted. We study how a specific form of social evaluation, relative status, impacts motivation to act competitively against other firms. Research is divided on how relative status affects competitive moves. Some research suggests that awareness mediates the relationship between relative status and motivation. Other research suggests that relative status moderates the relationship between awareness and motivation. It is important to resolve the relationship between relative status, awareness, and motivation because it can help firms take actions to lower the likelihood that they will become targets of competitive attacks by other firms. Teasing out the effects of the two competing explanations has been difficult, however, because relative status, attention, and motivation are typically not measured directly. We test both mechanisms in a unique dataset of food trucks in a mid-sized city in the U.S. that allows us to overcome this limitation. We find that high-status food trucks elicit greater competitive motivation from other food trucks primarily due to the greater attention the high-status food trucks garner. Further, we find no support for a moderation effect. Our study helps understand the interplay between awareness and motivation in the context of social evaluations.

The Contingent Effect of Gender on Entrepreneurs’ Relationships Within an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

This paper examines the extent to which gender roles influence the types of relationships entrepreneurs enter with other actors in an ecosystem. We draw on role-congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) to suggest that because of the perceived incongruity between female gender roles and entrepreneurship as a profession, stakeholders are less likely to engage with female entrepreneurs in a collaborative capacity than male entrepreneurs. We studied this by collecting survey and interview data. The survey and interviews posed questions pertaining to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well individual’s personal relationships with other in the local startup community. The nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem we studied was in a rural mid-sized city in the Midwest US. From this data we were able to determine the overall network structure and collaborations and friendships networks within the ecosystem. Findings suggest that entrepreneurs are less likely to collaborate overall than non-entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs are less likely to collaborate than male entrepreneurs and male and female non-entrepreneurs.