IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurpls/v21y2013i6p909-943.html

"Brain Drain" or "Brain Gain"? Students' Loyalty to their Student Town: Field Evidence from Norway

Author

Listed:
  • Øyvind Helgesen
  • Erik Nesset
  • Øivind Strand

Abstract

In the global economy regions fight a two-front 'war' to attract young people. On the one hand, they compete against more urban areas because young people leave home to study and do not return to their home region ('brain drain'). On the other hand, they struggle to attract new residents, students and entrepreneurs to their local region ('brain gain'). The context is a student town of a strong industrial region characterized by a net export of young people and an increasing demand for highly qualified labour. The purpose is to gain insight into how student loyalty to a student town may be enhanced. A partial least square path modelling approach is used to estimate a structural equation model of student town loyalty. One finding is that the creation of student town satisfaction has more influence on student town loyalty than reputation building. 'Social activity' is the most important loyalty driver. This antecedent is mediated through student town satisfaction and reputation, as well as university college reputation. The town municipalities and the university college should thus be coordinated in their effort to increase student town loyalty to bring down the 'brain drain' and increase the 'brain gain' in the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Øyvind Helgesen & Erik Nesset & Øivind Strand, 2013. ""Brain Drain" or "Brain Gain"? Students' Loyalty to their Student Town: Field Evidence from Norway," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 909-943, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:21:y:2013:i:6:p:909-943
    DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2012.722934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654313.2012.722934
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09654313.2012.722934?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2008. "Inside the black box of regional development: human capital, the creative class and tolerance," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 615-649, September.
    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. Krenz, Astrid, 2016. "Agglomeration of knowledge in the German regional economy," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 277, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    2. Qian Zhou & Zhipeng Qi, 2025. "How does digital inclusion finance alleviate air pollution? Spatial evidence from 1318 counties in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(12), pages 29315-29344, December.
    3. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    4. Sara C. Santos Cruz & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2021. "Spatial analysis of new firm formation in creative industries before and during the world economic crisis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(2), pages 385-413, October.
    5. Haifeng Qian, 2013. "Diversity Versus Tolerance: The Social Drivers of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in US Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2718-2735, October.
    6. Ylenia Brilli & Marco Tonello, 2015. "The contemporaneous effect of education on adolescent crime. Mechanisms and evidence from regional divides," CHILD Working Papers Series 41 JEL Classification: I2, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    7. Ann Marie Fiore & Linda S. Niehm & Jessica L. Hurst & Jihyeong Son & Amrut Sadachar & Daniel W. Russell & David Swenson & Christopher Seeger, 2015. "Will They Stay or Will They Go? Community Features Important in Migration Decisions of Recent University Graduates," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 29(1), pages 23-37, February.
    8. Philipp Gareis & Tom Broekel, 2022. "The Spatial Patterns of Student Mobility Before, During and After the Bologna Process in Germany," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(3), pages 290-309, July.
    9. Annie Tubadji & Thomas Colwill & Don Webber, 2021. "Voting with your feet or voting for Brexit: The tale of those stuck behind," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 247-277, April.
    10. Annie Tubadji & Brian Osoba & Peter Nijkamp, 2015. "Culture-based development in the USA: culture as a factor for economic welfare and social well-being at a county level," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(3), pages 277-303, August.
    11. 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).
    12. Paul D. Gottlieb, 2011. "Supply or Demand, Make or Buy," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 25(4), pages 303-315, November.
    13. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2016. "Tolerance in the United States: Does economic freedom transform racial, religious, political and sexual attitudes?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 53-70.
    14. Yan Zhou & Sangmoon Park, 2020. "The Regional Determinants of the New Venture Formation in China’s Car-Sharing Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, December.
    15. 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.
    16. John R. Posey, 2021. "The geographic redistribution of income in the United States, 1970–2010: the role of the super-wealthy," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 321-333, December.
    17. Batabyal, Amitrajeet A. & Beladi, Hamid, 2018. "Artists, engineers, and aspects of economic growth in a creative region," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 214-219.
    18. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2016. "Human capital in cities and suburbs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 91-123, July.
    19. Zachary T. Keeler & Heather M. Stephens, 2023. "What matters for lagging regions? The role of self‐employment and industrial diversity in distressed areas," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 962-1001, December.
    20. Rafael Boix & José Luis Hervás-Oliver & Blanca De Miguel-Molina, 2013. "“I want creative neighbours”. Do creative service industries spillovers cross regional boundaries?," Working Papers 1315, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.

    More about this item

    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:taf:eurpls:v:21:y:2013:i:6:p:909-943. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEPS20 .

    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.