IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i2p1840-1860d45685.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability and Competitiveness in Australian Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Hu

    (Globalization and Cities Research Program, University of Canberra, Bruce ACT 2601, Australia)

Abstract

This study injects sustainability into competitiveness to inform policy making and planning for contemporary urban development. This is built upon the recent advancement in the scholarship on urban competitiveness that demonstrates a clear deviation from an economic-centric approach to incorporate multiple dimensions of a city’s progress. This study has an explicit concern for environmental sustainability and its relationship with urban competitiveness and their conceptual and methodological articulations. Empirically, this study measures the sustainability and competitiveness in Australian cities and reveals that Australia’s urban progress is clearly associated with an environmental cost. The findings are useful to inform policy making and planning for building sustainable and competitive cities. Apart from the conventional solutions that focus on urban form change and transport infrastructure improvement, this study suggests a need to explore the opportunities deriving from the emerging smart city planning and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Hu, 2015. "Sustainability and Competitiveness in Australian Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-21, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:1840-1860:d:45685
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1840/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1840/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qingyun Du & Yanxia Wang & Fu Ren & Zhiyuan Zhao & Hongqiang Liu & Chao Wu & Langjiao Li & Yiran Shen, 2014. "Measuring and Analysis of Urban Competitiveness of Chinese Provincial Capitals in 2010 under the Constraints of Major Function-Oriented Zoning Utilizing Spatial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Tassilo Herrschel, 2013. "Competitiveness AND Sustainability: Can ‘Smart City Regionalism’ Square the Circle?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(11), pages 2332-2348, August.
    3. Michael E. Porter, 1996. "Competitive Advantage, Agglomeration Economies, and Regional Policy," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 19(1-2), pages 85-90, April.
    4. Paul Krugman, 1996. "Urban Concentration: The Role of Increasing Returns and Transport Costs," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 19(1-2), pages 5-30, April.
    5. Krugman, Paul R, 1996. "Making Sense of the Competitiveness Debate," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 17-25, Autumn.
    6. Costanzo Ranci, 2011. "Competitiveness and Social Cohesion in Western European Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(13), pages 2789-2804, October.
    7. Leslie Budd & Amer Hirmis, 2004. "Conceptual Framework for Regional Competitiveness," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(9), pages 1015-1028.
    8. Gilli, M. & Mazzanti, M. & Nicolli, F., 2013. "Sustainability and competitiveness in evolutionary perspectives: Environmental innovations, structural change and economic dynamics in the EU," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 204-215.
    9. Peter Kresl & Balwant Singh, 2012. "Urban Competitiveness and US Metropolitan Centres," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(2), pages 239-254, February.
    10. Francis J. Greene & Paul Tracey & Marc Cowling, 2007. "Recasting the City into City‐Regions: Place Promotion, Competitiveness Benchmarking and the Quest for Urban Supremacy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 1-22, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steffen Lehmann, 2015. "A New Urban Agenda: Introduction to the Special Issue on “Sustainable Urban Development”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-7, July.
    2. Richard Hu, 2015. "Sustainable Development Strategy for the Global City: A Case Study of Sydney," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-15, April.
    3. Lim, Eunjung, 2016. "Multilateral approach to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle in Asia-Pacific?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 158-164.
    4. Domingo Nevado-Peña & Víctor-Raúl López-Ruiz & José-Luis Alfaro-Navarro, 2015. "The Effects of Environmental and Social Dimensions of Sustainability in Response to the Economic Crisis of European Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Yang Chen & Aleksy Kwilinski & Olena Chygryn & Oleksii Lyulyov & Tetyana Pimonenko, 2021. "The Green Competitiveness of Enterprises: Justifying the Quality Criteria of Digital Marketing Communication Channels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Attila Buzási & Bettina Szimonetta Jäger, 2021. "Exploratory Analysis of Urban Sustainability by Applying a Strategy-Based Tailor-Made Weighting Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    7. Hossein Komasi & Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani & Olegas Prentkovskis & Paulius Skačkauskas, 2022. "Urban Competitiveness: Identification and Analysis of Sustainable Key Drivers (A Case Study in Iran)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    8. Ruxandra-Irina POPESCU & Răzvan-Andrei CORBOȘ & Ovidiu-Iulian BUNEA, 2020. "The Competitiveness Of Urban Systems In Central And Eastern Europe. A Qualitative Research," Proceedings of Administration and Public Management International Conference, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 16(1), pages 31-44, October.
    9. Castán Broto, Vanesa, 2017. "Urban Governance and the Politics of Climate change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-15.

    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. Mullen, Caroline & Marsden, Greg, 2015. "Transport, economic competitiveness and competition: A city perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Peter Mayerhofer & Matthias Firgo & Stefan Schönfelder, 2015. "Vierter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 60625, March.
    3. Coppola, A. & Ianuario, S. & Chinnici, G. & Di Vita, G. & Pappalardo, G. & D'Amico, D., 2018. "Endogenous and Exogenous Determinants of Agricultural Productivity: What Is the Most Relevant for the Competitiveness of the Italian Agricultural Systems?," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 10(2).
    4. Massimo Aria & Giuseppe Lucio Gaeta & Ugo Marani, 2019. "Similarities and Differences in Competitiveness Among European NUTS2 Regions: An Empirical Analysis Based on 2010–2013 Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 431-450, February.
    5. Peter Mayerhofer & Oliver Fritz & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2010. "Dritter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42430, March.
    6. Ayda Eraydın & Bilge Armatlı Köroğlu & Hilal Erkuş Öztürk & Suna Senem Yaşar, 2008. "Network Governance for Competitiveness: The Role of Policy Networks in the Economic Performance of Settlements in the Izmir Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(11), pages 2291-2321, October.
    7. Hossein Komasi & Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani & Olegas Prentkovskis & Paulius Skačkauskas, 2022. "Urban Competitiveness: Identification and Analysis of Sustainable Key Drivers (A Case Study in Iran)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    8. Keirstead, James, 2013. "Benchmarking urban energy efficiency in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 575-587.
    9. Jaime Sobrino, 2014. "Urban competitiveness and industrial clusters in Mexico," Chapters, in: Pengfei Ni & Zheng Qiongjie (ed.), Urban Competitiveness and Innovation, chapter 15, pages 252-274, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Pengfei Ni & Zheng Qiongjie (ed.), 2014. "Urban Competitiveness and Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15020.
    11. Pengfei Ni, 2012. "Italian cities and global urban competitiveness," Chapters, in: Peter Karl Kresl & Daniele Ietri (ed.), European Cities and Global Competitiveness, chapter 3, pages 32-58, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Thomas Berger, 2011. "An Overview and Analysis on Indices of Regional Competitiveness," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 1, pages 17-33, April.
    13. Imre Lengyel, 2011. "Types of competitiveness of Hungarian regions: agglomeration economies and endogenous regional development," ERSA conference papers ersa11p674, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Naoki FUJIWARA, 2019. "International City Network and Public-Private Cooperation Japanese Public Water Services’ Overseas Expansion," CIRIEC Working Papers 1909, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    15. Víctor G. Alfaro-García & Anna M. Gil-Lafuente & Gerardo G. Alfaro Calderón, 2017. "A fuzzy approach to a municipality grouping model towards creation of synergies," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 391-408, September.
    16. Sung Li & Long Zhao, 2015. "The competitiveness and development strategies of provinces in China: a data envelopment analysis approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 293-307, December.
    17. Marianna Gilli & Giovanni Marin & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Francesco Nicolli, 2017. "Sustainable development and industrial development: manufacturing environmental performance, technology and consumption/production perspectives," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 183-203, April.
    18. Julian Bundo & Mirdaim Axhami, 2020. "An Exploratory Study of Place Marketing Factors in Albanian Football," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 6, ejes_v6_i.
    19. Giammario Impullitti, 2007. "International Schumpeterian Competition and Optimal R&D subsidies," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/55, European University Institute.
    20. Fantechi, Federico & Fratesi, Ugo, 2024. "Spatial patterns of territorial competitiveness: The role of peripherality, urbanization and physical geography," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    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:7:y:2015:i:2:p:1840-1860:d:45685. 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.