Kirsten Martinus

Planning for production efficiency in knowledge-based development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual foundations for a study exploring the capacity of hard infrastructure and amenities to influence the socio‐economic imprint of urban spaces. The paper argues that some urban developments are more economically efficient in generating innovation and knowledge than others.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the debate between urban density and infrastructure. Drawing on empirical evidence and economic production theory, it explores the spatial links between economic growth, innovation and knowledge productivity. It argues that the growing role of human capital in the production process has linked productivity to a citys mix and levels of infrastructure and amenities. It reviews five key infrastructure types for knowledge‐based developments.Findings – This paper finds that the positive contribution of density to urban vibrancy and human connectivity is constrained by a citys infrastructure and amenity levels. It concludes that urban de...

Powering the world city system: energy industry networks and interurban connectivity

The authors explore energy as an alternative but important landscape of globalisation, where spatial geometries of global power and control are defined by particular historic and contemporary geopolitical and territorial forces. From the application of a social network analysis to energy corporate locations, it is argued that network geographic, relational, and hierarchical perspectives are all critical in enhancing understandings of the world city network. Some similarities with advanced producer services networks are noted, as well as important differences which are shaped by a combination of resource production and consumption, and geopolitical and economic power relations. The outcome is a dynamic set of interlocking local, regional, and global city globalisations.

Extending beyond ‘world cities’ in World City Network (WCN) research: urban positionality and economic linkages through the Australia-based corporate network

Defining the role of cities within economic networks has been a key theoretical challenge, particularly as nuanced understandings of positionality are increasingly championed over hierarchical notions of influence or power in the World City Network (WCN). This paper applies social network analysis (SNA) to identify the critical role that a wide range of cities plays in the Australian economic system. Drawing upon the set of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed firms, four distinct sub-networks are compared against the overall urban network. Each of the materials, energy, industrials, and financials sector sub-networks are found to have unique configurations of inter-urban relations, which are articulated through institutional and industry-specific factors, grounded in diverse histories and path-dependent trajectories. This analysis applies five different centrality measures to understand how positionality within the overall network and respective sub-networks might better inform policymakers formulating ‘globalizing’ urban policy. This addresses the long-standing theoretical debate regarding territorially articulated hierarchies of urban/corporate power, extricating WCN research from the core-periphery assumptions tied to its world-systems theory lineage. Understanding how, rather than if, cities are global provides contextual knowledge about how cities are situated within broader circuits of production, and the exogenous relations that shape urban economies around the world, providing a framework for research in other global contexts.

Global city clusters: theorizing spatial and non-spatial proximity in inter-urban firm networks

ABSTRACT Spatial agglomeration is well theorized within regional studies and economic geography, with firm- and industry-level advantages generally attributable to the strategic benefits derived from spatial proximity. Increasingly, alternative proximity types have been explored to explain firm relationships within and between industries. This paper applies a novel social network analysis (SNA) approach to analyze city clustering as a function of both spatial and non-spatial factors – namely, economic, sociocultural and geopolitical. Based on the internal reporting structures of Australia-based firms, it explores how ‘global clusters’ are more useful in understanding industry dynamics and processes than hierarchical lists of cities of cascading importance.

Metropolitan land-use patterns by economic function: a spatial analysis of firm headquarters and branch office locations in Australian cities

This paper develops a comparative means by which to understand metropolitan spatial structure through the dynamics of economic activities. Clustering and suburbanization have been key processes within the contemporary urban landscape, but few scholarly accounts have systematically merged the two to explain the geographies of economic activity. Using firm location as a variable to discern sector- and industry-based locational requirements, we explore land-use and economic activity in Australia’s five largest metropolitan areas. Drawing upon the respective headquarters and branch office locations of a set of publically traded firms, we seek to establish general spatial patterns across Australian cities using two proxy measures for clustering and suburbanization, being well-established drivers of firm locational choice. Despite the complexity that post-industrial and suburbanizing processes add to metropolitan land-use patterns, we contend that certain patterns exist that can be generalized from one context to another across urban space, and that certain emerging trends such as the development of CBD-fringe precincts merit greater attention.

The methodological challenge of cross-national qualitative research: Comparative case study interviews in Australia and Japan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difficulties faced during the interview process in a cross-national qualitative comparative case study between Japan and Australia. It discusses the challenges in producing insightful data and preserving the integrity of findings when methodologies are influenced by different cultural and professional environments. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores literature on cross-national qualitative research in the context of policy research as well as the philosophical and professional differences between Japan and Western countries (like Australia). It reflects on practical examples and strategies used by the researcher during the ethics and interview processes when adapting widely accepted qualitative case study methodology to suit the Japanese cultural and professional environment. Findings – The paper finds that linguistic, cultural, professional and philosophical differences between the countries challenged initial researcher assumptions th...

Strategic Planning for Employment Self-Containment in Metropolitan Sub-Regions

Abstract Metropolitan strategic plans often focus on strengthening local employment opportunities to address the congestion and commuting issues threatening city sustainability. The success of such strategies relies on a more equitable distribution of jobs between sub-regions and can be comparatively benchmarked through one of the three related measures of employment self-sufficiency, self-containment or jobs-housing balance. However, in practice, planning policy implementation to meet these targets seldom reduces automobile commuting. This paper investigates self-containment across a range of occupation and industry types to highlight large differences in commuting and employment patterns through a case study of Perth’s Northwest sub-region, Western Australia. Its findings suggest the application of current sub-regional policy and targets within Perth may reinforce the wage and skill disadvantage of outer metropolitan sub-regions over the inner core. It recommends a more nuanced understanding of these measures taking into account the complex dynamics of both employment opportunities and commuting patterns across sub-regions of a city.

How Chinese Financial Centers Integrate into Global Financial Center Networks: An Empirical Study Based on Overseas Expansion of Chinese Financial Service Firms

The increasing globalization of the Chinese economy has been enabled by both Chinese financial institutions operating globally as well as international firms operating within China. In geographical terms, this has been organized through a number of strategic cities serving as gateways for the exchange of financial functions, products and practices between China and the global economy. Drawing on location data of financial service firms in China listed on stock exchanges in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong, this paper shows that Chinese financial firms are expanding globally and how Chinese financial centers are positioned and connected in the urban networks shaped by these financial service firms. It is found that Hong Kong, China, holds strategic positions in the integration of Chinese cities into global financial center networks, and that establishing a foothold in global financial centers such as New York and London has been a priority for Chinese financial institutions. The increasing capital flows directed by Chinese financial institutions suggests a shifting global financial geography, with numerous Chinese cities playing increasingly important roles within global financial center networks.

Industrial location and global restructuring in Australian cities

ABSTRACT Globalisation has impacted both the balance of economic power between cities as well as the distribution of economic activities within them. Studies focusing on the impacts of globalisation often investigate one or the other, but rarely tie the two together. In Australian cities, central business districts (CBDs) and inner suburbs since the 1980s have become revalorised as strategic sites for multinational firm activities, complementing an already robust agglomeration of commodities-oriented firms, domestic manufacturing, and state-led industries. This paper compares the spatial organisation of Australian firm activity across Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. It first focuses on how the firms of each of these cities extend overseas through global branch office operations, and then shifts to the distribution of firms within each capital city region. Data are drawn from a complete set of 2196 listed Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) firms with operations in more than 100 countries. We find that while the mix of industries differs significantly between cities, the overall industrial patterns observed are relatively consistent from one city to the next. Australian cities are economically fairly centralised and services-oriented industries in particular are most prominent within CBDs. Sydney’s firms are found to be the most globalised, although all cities have significant numbers of global firms. However, we find that locational requirements are significantly varied from one industry to the next and between firm headquarters and branches. This has implications for planning cities to meet firm requirements in an economy that is digital and globally connected, and for national-level policy that distributes core economic competencies amongst Australian cities.

Labor Networks Connecting Peripheral Economies to the National Innovation System

Understanding the characteristics of innovation in peripheral regions is critical to enhancing economic competitiveness and productivity in remote or rural communities worldwide. Metropolitan innovation success stories have limited application or policy relevance in peripheral areas due to a lack of critical mass in industry and population. This has seen an emergent body of literature consider the different dynamics of innovation in these areas. This article contributes both methodologically and conceptually to current academic discourse and debates by exploring innovation across the sparsely populated large spatial divides of regional Australia through the novel use of social network analysis and econometric modeling. It employs commuting data and a regression of 2000 to 2013 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development patent data against select socioeconomic variables and commuting indexes. It finds that innovative activity is positively linked to population, commuting, and professional employment for smaller communities. This points to the movement of labor as an important factor, playing a role as an interregional conduit of tacit knowledge by extending the social capital networks of smaller peripheral communities.