Entrepreneurship In Cities

Entrepreneurship in Cities focuses on the neglected role of the home and the residential neighbourhood context for entrepreneurship and businesses within cities. The overall objective of the book is to develop a new interdisciplinary perspective that links entrepreneurship research with neighbourhood and urban studies. A key contribution is to show that entrepreneurship in cities is more than agglomeration economies and high-tech clusters. This is the first book to connect entrepreneurship with neighbourhoods and homes, recognising that business activity in the city is not confined to central business districts, high streets and industrial estates but is also found in residential neighbourhoods. It highlights the importance of home-based businesses for the economy of cities. These often overlooked types of businesses and workers significantly contribute to the ‘buzz’ that makes cities favourable places to live and work.

There has been increased emphasis on smart cities due to the economic, environmental and technological shifts that have impacted on society. This book focuses on how cities are becoming smarter, more innovative and entrepreneurial due to the increased pressures placed on them from societal changes in the global business environment. The book defines a smart city as an urban or rural development that integrates technology to enhance a city’s assets, which may include community services, parkland, education, transportation and energy sources. The book aims to examine the role that innovation has in creating smart cities by focusing on issues such as public transport, use of energy efficiency and sustainability practices. It helps to shed understanding on how cities have become smarter in the way they handle increased migration to urban and rural areas and decrease the strain on public finances.

Global cities with a largely cosmopolitan environment, such as Auckland, Berlin, Dubai, London, New York, Shanghai or Singapore, are successfully developing and attracting entrepreneurs from all over the world. This book elucidates the policy approaches related to the formation of the cosmopolitan environment that supports entrepreneurship in large urban areas. The book’s core theme is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and entrepreneurship, with the latter viewed as a key driver of economic growth, sustainability and prosperity. The book argues that successful entrepreneurship rests on the two pillars of the cosmopolitan environment: diversity and the creation of business opportunities. In contrast to globalisation’s standardised solutions in policy, commerce, banking and social issues, cosmopolitanism allows individualised value and solutions, whereby actors—entrepreneurs, businesses, families, interest groups, governments, non-governmental organisations and virtual communities—enjoy diversity as a norm. The book pays special attention to under-researched topics, such as threats to sustainability in cosmopolitan cities; why cosmopolitan cities attract immigrants with a highly independent mindset; the impact of religious norms on female and male entrepreneurs; varying experiences of local and expatriate entrepreneurs; and the diff erences in doing business by female entrepreneurs, stemming from their nationalities and residence status. The book off ers conceptual insights into the enablers of entrepreneurship in cosmopolitan cities and urban governance, complemented by case studies based on fi eldwork in Dubai, Hamburg, Istanbul, Karachi, Kyiv, London, Moscow and Tel Aviv. The book will appeal to those who study or teach cosmopolitanism, globalisation or urban development concepts, and those professionals who are considering the possibility of doing business or working as an expatriate in a cosmopolitan city.

"The public-private partnerships of the future will need to embody a triple-bottom-line approach that focuses on the new P3: people-planet-profit. This book is for anyone who wants to improve the way that we live in cities, without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government or corporate settings. If you are willing to go against the tide and follow some basic lessons in goal setting, experimentation, change management, financial innovation, and communication, real change in cities is possible."--Publisher's description.

Combining emerging trends in collaboration, democratization, and urbanization, this book examines the emergence of entrepreneurship and innovation as a primarily urban phenomenon, explains why urban environments are rapidly attracting global innovators across three distinct forms of "urbanpreneurship," and lights the path forward for entrepreneurs, innovators, and city governments. The world is urbanizing rapidly. Currently, 600 cities account for 60 percent of the global economy; by 2025, it is predicted that the top 100 cities will account for 35 percent of the world's economy. Emerging trends in collaboration, the sharing economy, and innovation are opening up new opportunities for entrepreneurs in urban environments—"urbanpreneurs"—to participate in everything from tech startups in cities (instead of suburban tech parks) to makers and on-demand service providers to roles in civic entrepreneurship for those interested in solving the challenges that growing cities are facing. Readers of this book will understand how the converging trends of collaboration, democratization, and urbanization are rapidly attracting global innovators to cities capable of creating the enabling environment for aspiring innovators. The book discusses how entrepreneurs can best capitalize on the opportunities in urban settings, identifies what large and small cities can do to encourage more urbanpreneurship, and concludes with a consideration of the future of entrepreneurship in urban environments.

In Small Business and the City, Rafael Gomez, Andre Isakov, and Matt Semansky highlight the power of small-scale entrepreneurship to transform local neighbourhoods and the cities they inhabit. Studying the factors which enable small businesses to survive and thrive, they highlight the success of a Canadian concept which has spread worldwide: the Business Improvement Area (BIA). BIAs allow small-scale entrepreneurs to pool their resources with like-minded businesses, becoming sources of urban rejuvenation, magnets for human talent, and incubators for local innovation in cities around the globe. Small Business and the City also analyses the policies necessary to support this urban vitality, describing how cities can encourage and support locally owned independent businesses. An inspiring account of the dynamism of urban life, Small Business and the City introduces a new “main street agenda” for the twenty-first century city.

An essential guide to building supportive entrepreneurial communities "Startup communities" are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other's talent, creativity, and support. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist Brad Feld's experience in the field?as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities?this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community in any city, at any time. Along the way, it offers valuable insights into increasing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, and much more. Details the four critical principles needed to form a sustainable startup community Perfect for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists seeking fresh ideas and new opportunities Written by Brad Feld, a thought-leader in this field who has been an early-stage investor and successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, but it also shows you how to make them work anywhere in the world.

This book draws on evidence from global cities around the world and explores various dimensions of immigrant entrepreneurship and urban development. It provides a substantive contribution to the existing literature in several ways. First of all, it pursues a comparative approach, with case studies from both the global north and global south, so as to broaden the theoretical framework in this area especially as pertinent to emerging economies. Second, it covers multiple scales, from local community place-making, to urban contexts of reception, to transnational networks and connections. Third, it combines approaches and research methods from numerous disciplines, investigating entry dynamics, trends and patterns, business performance, challenges, and the impact of immigrant entrepreneurship in urban areas. Finally, it pays particular attention to current international experiences regarding urban policies on immigrant entrepreneurship. Given its scope, the book will be an enlightening read for anyone interested in immigration, entrepreneurship and urban development issues around the globe. As global cities around the world continue to attract both domestic migrants and international migrants to their bustling metropolises, immigrant entrepreneurship is emerging as an important urban phenomenon that calls for careful examination. From Chinatown in New York, to Silicon Valley in San Francisco, to Little Africa in Guangzhou, immigrant-owned businesses are not only changing the business landscape in their host communities, but also transforming the spatial, economic, social, and cultural dynamics of cities and regions.