Are walkable places tech incubators? Evidence from Nebraska’s ‘Silicon Prairie’

Abstract

This study examines the spatial association between science-and technology-related entrepreneurship and neighbourhood walkability in eastern Nebraska, often referred to as the northern 'Silicon Prairie'. Tech startup firms are expected to gravitate toward more walkable or pedestrian-oriented urban locations to benefit from heightened social interaction, knowledge spillovers and a more vibrant, creative atmosphere. Data on start-up firms collected from the online database Crunchbase.com and a walkability index provided by the popular online service Walk Score ® were used to evaluate the walkability-tech entrepreneurship nexus. The spatial relationship between walkability and firm location may have important implications for metropolitan areas seeking to incubate new firms and industries in situ, and potentially become leaders in new, innovative industries.

Venture Capital Financing in the Esports Industry

“…The use of Crunchbase for reputable academic research has been increasing since the platform's creation in 2007. For instance, it was used by researchers investigating equity crowdfunding (Yu et al, 2017;Signori and Vismara, 2018;Thies et al, 2018;Kaminski et al, 2019), business angels (Croce et al, 2018;Cumming et al, 2016;Morales-Alonso et al, 2019), accelerators/incubators (Bereitschaft, 2019;Cumming et al, 2017), a combination of venture capital and other types of funding (Wang et al, 2016;Herck Giaquinto and Bortoluzzo, 2020;Block and Sandner, 2009;Yang and Berger, 2017;Ferrati and Muffatto, 2021;Caviggioli et al, 2020), or predictors of start-up success (Ross et al, 2021;Futagami et al, 2021;Żbikowski and Antosiuk, 2021;Kwon et al, 2018;Ter Wal et al, 2016;Pisoni and Onetti, 2018). 9 ChiNext is a board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, opened in 2009, similar to the American NASDAQ and aiming to attract fast growing or high-tech companies.…”

America's urban futures: In and beyond the city

“…There are particular institutional objectives, varying resources, and normative assumptions underpinning specific anchor institutions' approaches to their urban setting. Generally, anchoring is more successful when strategies of neighborhood revitalization balance the interests of local stakeholders to promote workforce development and the creation of attractive urbane districts (Bereitschaft, 2019; Ehlenz, 2019). How workforce development and social equity roles are grounded in place, though, significantly depends on the specific economic and geographic context in which urban universities and community colleges are operating.…”

„Rewaloryzacja” centrum miasta: tendencje lokalizacyjne przedsiębiorstw technologicznych w skali mikro na przykładzie Warszawy = “Revalorisation” of the city centre: location trends among micro scale technology companies as exemplified by Warsaw

“…Zmieniają się również potrzeby przedsiębiorstw związane z ich dostępnością transportową dla pracowników. Potrzeby te zaspokajane są w coraz większym stopniu ruchem pieszym, rowerowym oraz transportem publicznym (Bereitschaft, 2019). Rośnie również znaczenie przestrzeni ułatwiających interakcje społeczne, takich jak restauracje i kawiarnie (Zukin, 2020) czy tereny zielone (Stehlin, 2016), co upodabnia w tym aspekcie -mimo istnienia pewnych różnic w innych kwestiach -preferencje przedsiębiorstw technologicznych i kreatywnych (Jinliao i Xianjin, 2020).…”