Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
embodied in particular high human capital individuals with the discretion-
ary power to act on that knowledge. More specifically, the spatial network
structure of the global airline system determines the ease and frequency
(McCann 2007) with which business and corporate decision-makers are
able to engage in direct face-to-face contact with similar decision-makers
in other locations (McCann 2008; Aguilera 2008). As such, the implication
of these arguments is that global hub airport functions are critical for facili-
tating the types of higher-order knowledge flows which result in investment
decisions being made. Greater proximity to such infrastructure should
increase both the likelihood of investment being forthcoming in the nearby
regions and also the resulting level of innovations generated by the regions.
There are two final points that it is important to note about the cor-
respondence between global cities-regions and the location behaviour of
MNEs. Firstly, these global cities are not the world's largest cities. Indeed,
many of the cities listed in Table 7.2 would not be classed in any way as
global cities in this particular literature, and the reason is that the defini-
tion of 'global cities' is not related to the city size, but rather to its degree
of 'connectivity', 'openness' and 'accessibility'. As yet, and despite the
emergence of global hubs in some emerging economies, as we will see in
Chapter 8 most of the world's largest cities which are located in developing
countries still do not exhibit the knowledge, technology, trade, financial,
decision-making, transportation and human capital flows and networks
with the rest of the world which a genuinely global city exhibits.
Secondly, the emphasis on the role played by the presence of MNEs and
their network structures in making cities 'global cities' should not, in any
way, undermine the role that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
and agglomeration play for local economic growth. On the contrary,
and as also emphasized in Chapter 5, small entrepreneurial start-ups are
critical for innovation and growth, and agglomeration is crucial for pro-
moting their success well beyond the urban configuration of externalities
(Acs 2002). However, our arguments also imply that in the current era of
globalization the probability of success for small and medium sized firms
and SME-based clusters will be higher in the very city-regions which are
the most globally-connected and 'open' to new ideas and people. The
reason is that the suggestion from sociological studies that 'networks . . .
may act as a substitute for agglomerations . . . providing some or all
of
the utility gains and productivity increases derived from agglomeration'
(Johansson and Quigley 2004, p. 166) does not contradict the claim that
networks and agglomeration are in fact
complements
, as suggested by the
proximity literature. Such a claim has found strong support in the empiri-
cal evidence coming from the study of global productions networks and
value chain as MNEs and SMEs production systems (e.g., Guerrieri et al.
