Urban Economic Innovation

This professorship studies the dynamics of innovative coalitions in the city of Amsterdam that aim to make the city more sustainable and more attractive. What new partnerships and business models emerge, and how do they operate? How might they be managed more effectively? What division of roles do we see between public, private and knowledge partners? What conditions (spatial, social, economic, legal) determine their success? What competencies are required to launch and manage them?

Specific expertise

The professorship further offers specific expertise on these issues:

• How to effectively develop and apply new ‘smart city’ technology to make the city more sustainable and attractive? What innovative partnerships, alliances and business models are emergent and how do they operate?
• How and under what conditions does innovation come about in physical knowledge hubs such as science parks, campuses, creative clusters, co-working spaces or ‘innovative districts’; how and to what extent is synergy manageable, what are success factors, and how do these hot spots relate to the city as a whole?
• What new, inter-organisation business models do we find applied in typically metropolitan sectors such as the fashion industry, biotechnology, the ‘shared economy’, 3D printing, new manufacturing industries etc.? What are the key success factors?
• How might (scientific) research and education in the city connect/contribute to the local and regional challenges?

At a higher aggregate level: how might we better manage urban innovation ecosystems? How do new hybrid institutions such as the Amsterdam Economic Board, Amsterdam Smart City and comparable platforms function in other cities? What new approaches and tools are there, what dilemmas arise?