The intrametropolitan location of innovative firms: an analysis for Barcelona Metropolitan Region

Abstract

The location of innovation activities have been largely studied at regional level. The main conclusions suggest that some aspects as human, social, and material capital have an important impact on the catalysis of such kind of activities. In general terms all the studies have conclude that innovation is highly concentrated in metropolitan areas, for this reason it has been assumed that this activities are dependent of rich-knowledge environments. Nevertheless, in contemporary complex metropolises, beyond agglomeration economies, there is important variation of locative factors such as accessibility, social perception of the space and environmental quality that may affect the location of innovative activities. In this context it is important to study the importance of each locative factor in the construction of innovative micro-urban environments. This paper reports the first exploratory findings about the relation between socio-geographical aspects and the intremetropolitan location of innovative activities. Using an econometric approach we try to explain, at census tract level, the spatial variation of the density of innovative firms such firms have been awarded by the Catalan Council of R+D+i. The analysis suggest that some factors like the compacity of urban fabrics, the accessibility and proximity to Knowledge Intensive Services (KIS), the socioprofessional prestige, and the absence of negative environmental externalities, are key issues on the locative decision of innovative enterprises.