IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i2p763-d722057.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nowcasting Entrepreneurship: Urban Third Place versus the Creative Class

Author

Listed:
  • Li Fang

    (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA)

  • Timothy Slaper

    (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

Abstract

Researchers have long debated whether entrepreneurship policy should focus on place or people. In this paper, we extend the place-based versus people-based theories using contemporaneous and geographically granular web-user online activity data to predict a region’s proclivity for entrepreneurship. We compare two theoretical hypotheses: the urban third places—informal gathering locations—that facilitate social interaction and entrepreneurship, in contrast to the creative class which fosters entrepreneurial energy and opportunity in a region. Specifically, we assess whether business formation has a stronger statistical relationship with the browsing behavior of individuals visiting websites associated with third place locations—e.g., restaurants or bars—or the concentration of web browsing behavior associated with “the creative class”. Using U.S. county-level data, we find that both urban third places and the creative class can predict about 70% of the variations in regional business formation, with the creative class having a slight competitive edge.

Suggested Citation

  • Li Fang & Timothy Slaper, 2022. "Nowcasting Entrepreneurship: Urban Third Place versus the Creative Class," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:2:p:763-:d:722057
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/2/763/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/2/763/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xi Huang & Cathy Yang Liu, 2019. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Economic Development," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 85(4), pages 564-584, October.
    2. Michael Storper & Allen J. Scott, 2009. "Rethinking human capital, creativity and urban growth," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 147-167, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    2. Karelin, Iliya & Kapelyuk, Sergey, 2023. "Digital Skills of Russian Citizens: Regional Differences," MPRA Paper 119494, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Anthony Goerzen & Michael Sartor & Kristin Brandl & Stacey Fitzsimmons, 2023. "Widening the lens: Multilevel drivers of firm corporate social performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 42-60, February.
    4. Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay & Angélo Battaglia, 2013. "A comparative approach to doing research on cities: comparing North American cities to others," Chapters, in: Peter Karl Kresl & Jaime Sobrino (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Urban Economies, chapter 5, pages 97-126, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Aurélie LALANNE & Guillaume POUYANNE, 2012. "Ten years of metropolization in economics: a bibliometric approach (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2012-11, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    6. Margarida Rodrigues & Cidália Oliveira & MárioFranco & Ana Daniel, 2024. "A Bibliometric Study About the Rural Creative Class: Proposal of a Conceptual Framework and Future Agenda," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 15278-15303, September.
    7. Riccardo Crescenzi & Nancy Holman & Enrico Orru’, 2017. "Why do they return? Beyond the economic drivers of graduate return migration," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 59(3), pages 603-627, November.
    8. Neil Lee & Paul Sissons & Katy Jones, 2016. "The Geography of Wage Inequality in British Cities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1714-1727, October.
    9. Stephen Syrett & Leandro Sepulveda, 2011. "Realising the Diversity Dividend: Population Diversity and Urban Economic Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(2), pages 487-504, February.
    10. Gordon L. Clark, 2016. "The Components of Talent: Company Size and Financial Centres in the European Investment Management Industry," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 168-181, January.
    11. Marcos Valdivia & Ricardo Macip, 2018. "Production of New Creative Knowledge in a Local Developing Economy: The Case of Puerto Vallarta," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 109(2), pages 309-326, April.
    12. Niusha Esmaeilpoorarabi & Tan Yigitcanlar & Mirko Guaralda, 2016. "Place quality and urban competitiveness symbiosis? A position paper," International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1), pages 4-21.
    13. Pui-Hang Wong & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2025. "The teleworking paradox: the geography of residential mobility of workers in pandemic times," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 74(1), pages 1-27, March.
    14. Viktor A. Venhorst, 2017. "Human capital spillovers in Dutch cities: consumption or productivity?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 59(3), pages 793-817, November.
    15. Stefania Fiorentino, 2019. "The Maker Faire of Rome as a window of observation on the new perspectives for local economic development and the new urban entrepreneurial ecosystems," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(4), pages 364-381, June.
    16. Max Nathan & Emma Vandore, 2013. "Here Be Startups: Exploring a young digital cluster in Inner East London," SERC Discussion Papers 0146, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    17. Raimi, Daniel & Cook, Kamil, 2021. "From Fabrics to Fossils: What Can the Decline of US Textile Manufacturing Teach Us About the Energy Transition?," RFF Issue Briefs 21-11, Resources for the Future.
    18. Paula Prenzel & Simona Iammarino, 2021. "Labor Force Aging and the Composition of Regional Human Capital," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 97(2), pages 140-163, March.
    19. Ernest Miguélez & Rosina Moreno, 2014. "What Attracts Knowledge Workers? The Role Of Space And Social Networks," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 33-60, January.
    20. James E. Rowe, 2011. "Controversies in Local Economic Development: Stories, Strategies, Solutions – By Martin Perry," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 45-47, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:2:p:763-:d:722057. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.