Urban Competition Research Articles

Evaluation on the Competitiveness of Logistics Outsourcing Based on TOPSIS: 4 Cities in Yangtze River Delta

Urban logistic capability is an importation area of urban competition capability. The competitiveness index system of city logistics service outsourcing was constructed in this paper. According the actual situation of 4 cities in China's Yangtze River delta, the competitiveness evaluation of logistics service outsourcing of them were carried out based on TOPSIS method. Furthermore, by comparing we can discover the experience and main existing problems of urban logistics service outsourcing, so as for the feasible countermeasures of development to provide the scientific basis. The evaluation method has certain practical value.

Competitive cities and human scales: The semiotics of urban excess

Cities are inextricably bound to their human denizens, although this human dimension is complicated by the emphasis on scale, speed, and progress that often dominates the semiotics and discourses of urban competition. In a profoundly ambivalent movement, various aspects of human “livability” are highlighted in the “quality of life” components of cities rankings and planning, while at the same time the “megacity” trend in planning and semiosis constantly threatens to overwhelm precisely that human livability. We can thus detect two broad and fundamentally-opposed semiotic trends, namely, the confidently cosmopolitan trend that emphasizes urban growth and the positive effects these are assumed to have on quality of life; and the dehumanizing trend that emphasizes the human cost of urban growth and its technological components. The profound ambivalence that this indicates, needs to be figured into urban discourses towards a more holistic and balanced account.

City branding and the Olympic effect: A case study of Beijing

City branding is a common practice adopted by many cities in the context of intensified urban competition for mobile resources, markets, opportunities and attention. This paper examines the effectiveness of efforts to brand Beijing, the capital city of China. Based on an analysis of official branding strategies through the Olympics, and an attitudinal survey of peoples’ understanding of Beijing, the paper investigates to what extent the current campaign has caught the city’s good attributes. The paper finds a mismatch between the identity and core values as branded by the city government, and the realities as experienced by visitors and residents. The paper argues that the Beijing Olympics could only have limited impacts on the city’s brand.

Developmental state, property‐led growth and property investment risks in China

PurposeThis paper aims to apply the developmental state theory to examine the institutional arrangements that support the widespread adoption of the property‐led urban economic growth model and generate risks on property investment in Chinese cities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conducts institutional analysis on the behaviour of the Chinese state and examines results from major interview programmes and field investigations on six cities in China.FindingsThe Chinese state deviates from other developmental states and is polymorphous, i.e. lacking an effective central state to maintain the standard of governance and regulate the behaviour of local states. The weak central state is responsible for failures to implement national policies on land supply and housing price inflation, to nurture the development of professions like valuation, and to formulate policy on commercial property. The local states, on the other hand, intensify risks in property investment by poor plan making and implementation that create chaos in urban development and intensive competition among projects, and by poor data services and legal support for market operations. Such risks, however, seem to be played down by Chinese property professionals.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper uses the summarised opinions of interviewees who have varied expertise on different issues in China. Further research could be conducted on a number of fronts, say risk perception by different professions such as valuers or investors.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to apply developmental state theory to examine the roles the Chinese central and local governments play in using the property‐led growth model on the generation and intensification of property investment risks.

Research on Urban Logistics Infrastructure: An Empirical Study of China

Urban Logistics Infrastructure (ULI) is an important area of urban competition capability. The connotation of Urban Logistics Capability (ULC) is analyzed in this paper. Compared with the extensive research on ULC in developed world, empirical work is still rare in China. In this paper the theory of ULC is firstly overviewed. Then a new evaluation index system for ULC evaluation is set up which contains factors that reflect the market supply and demand, economic devel-opment and transportation accessibility. Secondly, an empirical study is carried out by using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method to classify ULC into 3 clusters for 30 cities in Peo-ple's Republic of China. Thirdly, according to the characteristics of the 3 clusters, suggestions are proposed for im-proving their ULI. Finally, after comparing different ULC of 30 cities in People's Republic of China, this paper focuses on that different logistics infrastructure including Hub, Central Distribution Center & Cross Docking Center, Regional Distribution Center or Distribution Center should be build reasonably in order to meet the customer’s requirement in the 3 different cluster cities.

Review: Governing Cities in a Global Era: Urban Innovation, Competition, and Democratic Reform, edited by Robin Hambleton and Jill Simone Gross. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. 292 pages. $29.95 (paperback)

Review: Governing Cities in a Global Era: Urban Innovation, Competition, and Democratic Reform, edited by Robin Hambleton and Jill Simone Gross. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. 292 pages. $29.95 (paperback)

Property-led development als neuer Ansatz in der Stadtentwicklung? Das Beispiel der South Boston Waterfront in Boston

Property-led development as a new approach in urban development? South Boston Waterfront in Boston as a case study. In many cities, property-led development seems to be an attractive and practicable strategy in order to enhance socioeconomic growth. Cities boost with attractive investment environments and locations in large-scale redevelopments in order to attract external investors and affluent households. Urban development projects are part and parcel of strategies to gain a favourable position in the urban competition. However, this goes along with the attempt to guarantee favourable investment conditions in order to convince project developer and investors to realize buildings. This implies variances in zoning and urban planning and tax incentives which absorb speculative risks of the developers. This urban development strategy is analyzed in the context of a shift towards entrepreneurialism and new forms of urban governance. The case study to support the argument is the South Boston Waterfront, a large-scale redevelopment project in Boston.

The World as a Region: Urban Development Strategies in a Global Economy

(conference paper: American Society for Public Administration, 58th National Conference, Philadelphia, July 26-30, 1997) Traditional models of urban economic development focus on regions. For example, States and localities are usually seen as being in competition with one another within a region or economic area of specialization and they base their economic development strategies on the positions and strategies of their perceived competitors. For some cities, however, this regional strategy may not be appropriate. For cities such as New York, London, Tokyo or Paris, the competition is often not so much Philadelphia, Manchester, Kyoto or Lyon as it is other international cities which are comparable to them in specific economic niches (for example, the first three are competitors for attracting international financial institutions). This paper examines recent models of urban and economic competition in the international economy (most notably those developed by Paul Krugman) and assesses how the increasing interdependence in the world economy is changing local economic development strategies in the United States. Existing strategies are examined in selected U.S. cities with special focus on some of their specific development niches. The paper focuses on New York(headquarters for international firms and international capital markets), Chicago (international capital markets), Los Angeles (international entertainment and Pacific Rim enterprise), and Miami (international tourism and recreation).

Do Location Characteristics Have Different Survival Values for High and Low-Technology De Novo Enterprises?

The importance of sectors characterized by high knowledge and technological intensity is growing in the new economy. The creation and maintenance of competitive advantage in high-technology sectors depend to a large degree on innovation. Since diffusion of innovation tends to be local, location characteristics matter. We argue that new high-technology firms can improve their survival probabilities by entering locations that stimulate and support innovation. These characteristics include urban diversity, competitive industrial structure, and clustering. In contrast, clustering, competition and diversity have lower survival value for low-technology firms, as the benefits accruing from higher innovation levels are less valuable. Indeed, the costs of urban congestion, and the pressure of competition on prices may result in negative impacts on survival. We test our hypotheses using an extensive longitudinal data base which covers all de novo entrants into the Canadian manufacturing sectors. The results indicate that clustering has a higher survival value for high-technology firms. Urban diversity and competition have positive effect on the survival of high-technology firms and negative effect on low-technology firms.

World cities of knowledge: research strength, networks and nodality

PurposeThe paper sets out to focus on the upper level of knowledge cities of the world.Design/methodology/approachThey are analyzed in terms of research output in total and for three disciplines: biotechnology, information and communications technology, and nanotechnology. The concept of knowledge in regional and urban competition is generally recognized, although relations between urban and regional economic growth and knowledge level are far from clear.FindingsIn this paper research strength of the major research metropolis of the world is analyzed, and interrelations between the centers using co‐authorship as indicator are identified.Originality/valueCategorization of the nodal cities of the global research community is linked to the world city concept.

External sources of urban competitive advantages in China

Urban competition refers to capacities of cities for attracting, capturing, controlling, dominating and transforming certain resources during urban development, and capacities for wealth creating, life-standard improving and sustainable development maintenance. This paper first analyzes the external sources of urban competitive advantages: the global network-based advantages and the location-based ones. Then with the aid of method of principal component analysis in SPSS 10.0 for Windows, the Chinese urban global and local competitive advantages are explored. The finding is that the global network-and location-based advantages are remarkable for the cities in the eastern China. While for those in the western and the middle regions, affected by much lower regional competitive advantages and lower degrees of urban-regional integration, the urban competitive advantages are deeply influenced and weakened.

Culture, creativity and spatial planning

In the past, culture has been a widely neglected subject in spatial planning. In a period of globalisation and increasing urban competition, however, the cultural dimension of urban and regional development has earned more atttention from academics and planning professionals in cities and regions. This article presents the various dimensions of culture in spatial planning and city building processes in Europe, its role for urban imaging and marketing, for local economic development and job creation, and for sustaining identity and quality of life for citizens in the twenty-first century.

Sydney und Singapur - divergierende Entwicklungs- und Steuerungsstrategien im urbanen Konkurrenzgefüge

Sidney and Singapur - diverging governance strategies in urban competition. Singapore and Sydney are two emerging global cities in the Asian-Pacific region. The output of growing numbers of regional headquarters. modern architecture, high standard inner city residential areas and a rising proportion of high qualified professionals is mostly similar. Yet, the ways to reach global city status show differences. In Sydney private developers or investors play a major role in urban governance. In Singapore state control is much stronger in fields of urban planning. However, the visions and visible outcomes are comparable.

Influential factors combination and competitive advantages in stages of urban competitiveness

The urban competitive advantages rely on the combination and interaction of influential factors. As a dynamic progressive process, the city at different time has different competition influential factors combination. Because of this, the urban competitive advantages take on time-series characteristics. Stages of urban competition can be summed up into three ones, the basic factor-driven, the investment-driven and the innovation-driven. The finding of the study on the stages of urban competitive advantages in Suzhou is that in the current stage of Suzhou its competitive advantage is the investment-driven. The investment, especially FDI, plays remarkable functions for Suzhou competition with other cities.

Urban Planning in Istanbul in the Early Republican Period

This paper examines an important period in the modernisation and westernisation of Istanbul associated with the works of the French urbanist Henri Prost. conventionally portrayed as a visionary figure in the westernisation of Istanbul and its physical transformation into a modern and secular city in the early republican period. Despite his not being the winner of an urban design competition conducted for the purpose. Prost was invited by Atatürk to develop a Master Plan for Istanbul. The government tolerated and encouraged works that were largely cosmetic and achieved little in terms of modernisation. Prost may have been acceptable to the republican elites and the peasantist ideology that supported it. aiming to beautify the city and make it more motor car friendly, but not to put in place wholesale interventions. Later changes in economic and political structures rekindled his projects, but when they were completed much later, the cultural and political transformation that had occurred disassociated them from Prost's initial vision

URBAN COMPETITION AND CHANGING URBAN GOVERNANCE IN SUZHOU-WUXI-CHANGZHOU REGION

This paper is a study on the urban governance restructuring in relation to urban competition, using Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region in China as a case study. A quantitative approach is used in this analysis of urban competition. The governance issues are also analyzed. The paper argues that urban competition related to the triple processes of globalization, decentralization and marketization should be viewed as a major driving force of urban governance restructuring. In dealing with issues caused by urban competition, city governments and other related organizations in the region have attempted to adopt three major strategies: adjusting administrative boundaries, shifting from control to influence, and partnership formation.

Metropolitan cooperation in Europe: Theoretical issues and perspectives for urban networking 1

In recent years urban entrepreneurialism has become a metropolitan strategy to cope with the challenges of an increasingly flexible global economy. Building on a debate about the problematic nature of this strategy we argue that cooperation of cities, or metropolitan cooperation, constitutes a new policy option for local actors which has the potential to overcome the negative effects of urban competition. In order to explore this potential we analyse the fundamental changes of the local state and existing cooperative efforts. This analysis shows that so far metropolitan cooperation is mainly experimental in character and a policy option that moves forward by trial and error and by learning from success and failure. We see this as partly due to a lack of an adequate theoretical framework dealing with the economics of urban systems. By way of synthesizing different academic discourses we suggest a conceptualization of metropolitan cooperation which takes into account the potential economic benefits and institutional requirements of cooperative behaviour of urban actors. Based on these considerations we establish criteria for suitable thematic fields of metropolitan cooperation and suggest forms of institutionalization.

A New Phase in the Competition for the Olympic Gold: The London and New York Bids for the 2012 Games

The financial success of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games, coupled with the dramatic increase in the revenues from the sale of television broadcasting rights and the sponsorship by international companies, have brought about a growing interest by cities to host the Games. This article contends that it is possible to identify the beginning of a new phase in the development of the Olympic Games. The question asked is why are cities like New York and London so interested in hosting the Olympic Games. In the case of those world cities, the emphasis appears more on strengthening their global status in an era of growing inter–urban competition and to finance large–scale planned construction projects in those cities.

The Top-level Global Research System, 1997-99: Centres, Networks and Nodality. An Analysis Based on Bibliometric Indicators

The importance of the knowledge-base in regional and urban competition is generally recognised, although causal relations between urban and regional economic growth and knowledge level are far from clear. This paper presents the first analysis of the strength, interrelations and nodality of the global research centres. The data are records in the Science Catation Index 1997-99 of papers produced by authors from the 40 largest `greater' urban regions of the world as measured by research output. The network of research co-operation depends on nationality, distance and other factors. The top-level nodes in the co-operation network of the world are London, Geneve-Lausanne and the San Francisco Bay Area. In absolute number of co-authored papers, Los Angeles, Boston and New York constitute a second level and, when observed links are related to expected links, the second level combines Amsterdam-Hague-Rotterdam-Utrecht, Paris, Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Copenhagen-Lund. As expected, the networks of citation are, by contrast, very independent of distance, but not of nationality. The primary categories of research centres for the total number of citings presented are San Diego, Seattle, Boston, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. When we turn to the international data-set, it is Mannheim-Heidelberg, Geneve-Lausanne, Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Cambridge which are in the lead.

Une nouvelle approche de l'importance métropolitaine et de la relativité des réseaux urbains en Europe (The new approach of metropolises in European urban structure)

Abstract. - The re-definition of the economic role of European metropolises concerns the specialization in services which means new hierarchical structures and new urban competition. The paper deals with the long-term perspectives of specialization on the one hand (product-cycle-theory or comparative advantages) and with the perspectives of co-operation and competition on the other.