IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v54y2022i2p347-369.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Listening to the buzz: Exploring the link between firm creation and regional innovative atmosphere as reflected by social media

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo Corradini

    (University of Birmingham, UK)

  • Emma Folmer

    (3647University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Anna Rebmann

    (4616King’s College London, UK)

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to capture ‘buzz’, the vibrancy and knowledge exchange propensity of localised informal communication flows. Building on a conceptual framework based on relational economic geography, we argue the content of buzz may allow to probe into the character of places and investigate what is ‘in the air’ within regional entrepreneurial milieux. In particular, we analyse big data to listen for the presence of buzz about innovation – defined by discursive practices that reflect an innovative atmosphere – and explore how this may influence regional firm creation. Using information from 180 million geolocated Tweets comprising almost two billion words across NUTS3 regions in the UK for the year 2014, our results offer novel evidence, robust to different model specifications, that regions characterised by a relatively higher intensity of discussion and vibrancy around topics related to innovation may provide a more effective set of informal resources for sharing and recombination of ideas, defining regional capabilities to support and facilitate entrepreneurial processes. The findings contribute to the literature on the intangible dimensions in the geography of innovation and offer new insights on the potential of natural language processing for economic geography research.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Corradini & Emma Folmer & Anna Rebmann, 2022. "Listening to the buzz: Exploring the link between firm creation and regional innovative atmosphere as reflected by social media," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(2), pages 347-369, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:54:y:2022:i:2:p:347-369
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X211056653
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X211056653
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X211056653?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2010. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship," NBER Chapters, in: Cities and Entrepreneurship, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Sam Youl Lee & Richard Florida & Zoltan J. Acs, 2008. "Creativity and Entrepreneurship: A Regional Analysis of New Firm Formation," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 13, pages 171-182, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Ron A. Boschma & Michael Fritsch, 2009. "Creative Class and Regional Growth: Empirical Evidence from Seven European Countries," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 85(4), pages 391-423, October.
    4. Michael Fritsch & Oliver Falck, 2007. "New Business Formation by Industry over Space and Time: A Multidimensional Analysis," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 157-172.
    5. Haifeng Qian & Hyejin Jung, 2017. "Solving the knowledge filter puzzle: absorptive capacity, entrepreneurship and regional development," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 99-114, January.
    6. Patrizia Casadei & Neil Lee, 2020. "Global cities, creative industries and their representation on social media: A micro-data analysis of Twitter data on the fashion industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(6), pages 1195-1220, September.
    7. Michael Storper & Anthony J. Venables, 2004. "Buzz: face-to-face contact and the urban economy," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 351-370, August.
    8. Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg & Rebecca Henderson, 1993. "Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 577-598.
    9. Clive Lawson & Edward Lorenz, 1999. "Collective Learning, Tacit Knowledge and Regional Innovative Capacity," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 305-317.
    10. Zoltán J. Ács & Pontus Braunerhjelm & David B. Audretsch & Bo Carlsson, 2015. "The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 7, pages 129-144, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Ben Spigel, 2017. "The Relational Organization of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(1), pages 49-72, January.
    12. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2014. "Creativity, Cities, and Innovation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(5), pages 1139-1159, May.
    13. Paul Bishop, 2012. "Knowledge, diversity and entrepreneurship: a spatial analysis of new firm formation in Great Britain," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7-8), pages 641-660, September.
    14. Michael Storper & Thomas Kemeny & Taner Osman & Naji, Institutional Research Information Service Makarem, 2015. "The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies," Post-Print hal-01534293, HAL.
    15. Alexander Jones Gross & Dhiraj Murthy & Lav R. Varshney, 2017. "Pace of Life in Cities and the Emergence of Town Tweeters," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(4), pages 21582440177, December.
    16. Haifeng Qian & Zoltán J. Ács & Roger R. Stough, 2015. "Regional systems of entrepreneurship: the nexus of human capital, knowledge and new firm formation," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 14, pages 257-285, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Catherine Armington & Zoltan J. Acs, 2008. "The Determinants of Regional Variation in New Firm Formation," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 18, pages 224-243, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Vincent Lefebvre & Miruna Radu Lefebvre & Eric Pierre Simon, 2015. "Formal entrepreneurial networks as communities of practice: a longitudinal case study," Post-Print hal-01217308, HAL.
    19. Jung Won Sonn & Michael Storper, 2008. "The Increasing Importance of Geographical Proximity in Knowledge Production: An Analysis of US Patent Citations, 1975–1997," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(5), pages 1020-1039, May.
    20. Eszter Bokányi & Dániel Kondor & László Dobos & Tamás Sebők & József Stéger & István Csabai & Gábor Vattay, 2016. "Race, religion and the city: twitter word frequency patterns reveal dominant demographic dimensions in the United States," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-9, December.
    21. Tata, Amulya & Martinez, Daniella Laureiro & Garcia, David & Oesch, Adrian & Brusoni, Stefano, 2017. "The psycholinguistics of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 38-44.
    22. Indaco, Agustín, 2020. "From twitter to GDP: Estimating economic activity from social media," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    23. Sleuwaegen, Leo & Boiardi, Priscilla, 2014. "Creativity and regional innovation: Evidence from EU regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1508-1522.
    24. Bjørn Asheim & Lars Coenen & Jan Vang, 2007. "Face-to-Face, Buzz, and Knowledge Bases: Sociospatial Implications for Learning, Innovation, and Innovation Policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 25(5), pages 655-670, October.
    25. Audretsch, David B. & Lehmann, Erik E., 2005. "Does the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship hold for regions?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1191-1202, October.
    26. Gernot Grabher, 2002. "Cool Projects, Boring Institutions: Temporary Collaboration in Social Context," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 205-214.
    27. Meric S. Gertler, 2003. "Tacit knowledge and the economic geography of context, or The undefinable tacitness of being (there)," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 75-99, January.
    28. Vincent Lefebvre & Miruna Radu Lefebvre & Eric Simon, 2015. "Formal entrepreneurial networks as communities of practice: a longitudinal case study," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(7-8), pages 500-525, September.
    29. Carlo Corradini, 2021. "The geography of innovation as reflected by social media," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 227-229, March.
    30. Haifeng Qian & Zoltán J. Ács, 2015. "An absorptive capacity theory of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 9, pages 161-173, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    31. Colombelli, Alessandra & Quatraro, Francesco, 2018. "New firm formation and regional knowledge production modes: Italian evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 139-157.
    32. David Urbano & Sebastian Aparicio & David Audretsch, 2019. "Twenty-five years of research on institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth: what has been learned?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 21-49, June.
    33. Audretsch, David B. & Keilbach, Max, 2008. "Resolving the knowledge paradox: Knowledge-spillover entrepreneurship and economic growth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1697-1705, December.
    34. Andreas Schwab & Zhu Zhang, 2019. "A New Methodological Frontier in Entrepreneurship Research: Big Data Studies," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(5), pages 843-854, September.
    35. Luke Sloan & Jeffrey Morgan & William Housley & Matthew Williams & Adam Edwards & Pete Burnap & Omer Rana, 2013. "Knowing the Tweeters: Deriving Sociologically Relevant Demographics from Twitter," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(3), pages 74-84, August.
    36. Ute Stephan & Lorraine M Uhlaner, 2010. "Performance-based vs socially supportive culture: A cross-national study of descriptive norms and entrepreneurship," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(8), pages 1347-1364, October.
    37. Martin Obschonka & Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Johannes C. Eichstaedt & Tobias Ebert, 2020. "Big data methods, social media, and the psychology of entrepreneurial regions: capturing cross-county personality traits and their impact on entrepreneurship in the USA," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 567-588, October.
    38. Emmanouil Tranos & Peter Nijkamp, 2013. "The Death Of Distance Revisited: Cyber-Place, Physical And Relational Proximities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 855-873, December.
    39. Zoltan Acs & David Audretsch & Pontus Braunerhjelm & Bo Carlsson, 2012. "Growth and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 289-300, September.
    40. Feng Wang & Elizabeth A. Mack & Ross Maciewjewski, 2017. "Analyzing Entrepreneurial Social Networks with Big Data," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(1), pages 130-150, January.
    41. Audretsch, David B. & Bönte, Werner & Keilbach, Max, 2008. "Entrepreneurship capital and its impact on knowledge diffusion and economic performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 687-698, November.
    42. Li Fang, 2020. "Agglomeration and innovation: Selection or true effect?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 423-448, March.
    43. Michael Storper & Allen J. Scott, 2009. "Rethinking human capital, creativity and urban growth," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 147-167, March.
    44. David Audretsch & Maksim Belitski, 2013. "The missing pillar: the creativity theory of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 819-836, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liang Xu & Zhigao Liu, 2022. "The Evolution of the Spatial Patterns of Startup Firms in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China in the 21st Century," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haifeng Qian, 2018. "Knowledge-Based Regional Economic Development: A Synthetic Review of Knowledge Spillovers, Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 32(2), pages 163-176, May.
    2. Carlo Corradini, 2022. "Social trust and new firm formation: a regional perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 169-184, January.
    3. Niccolò Ghio & Massimiliano Guerini & Erik Lehmann & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2015. "The emergence of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 1-18, January.
    4. Kim, Jungho & Kollmann, Trevor & Palangkaraya, Alfons & Webster, Elizabeth, 2022. "Does local technological specialisation, diversity and dynamic competition enhance firm creation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).
    5. Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2015. "Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth: a network theory," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 103-128, June.
    6. Alfredo Monte & Luca Pennacchio, 2020. "Historical roots of regional entrepreneurship: the role of knowledge and creativity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Alessandra Colombelli & Emilio Paolucci & Elisabetta Raguseo & Gianluca Elia, 2024. "The creation of digital innovative start-ups: the role of digital knowledge spillovers and digital skill endowment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 917-937, March.
    8. Haifeng Qian, 2013. "Diversity Versus Tolerance: The Social Drivers of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in US Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2718-2735, October.
    9. Silveli Cristo-Andrade & João J. Ferreira, 2020. "Knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship: what researches and approaches?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 263-286, March.
    10. Ronja Kirschning & Matthias Mrożewski, 2024. "Revisiting the knowledge spillover paradox: the impact of infrastructure," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 1-20, June.
    11. Ronja Kirschning & Matthias Mrożewski, 2023. "The role of entrepreneurial absorptive capacity for knowledge spillover entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 105-120, January.
    12. David Audretsch & Maksim Belitski, 2013. "The missing pillar: the creativity theory of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 819-836, December.
    13. Haifeng Qian, 2017. "Knowledge base differentiation in urban systems of innovation and entrepreneurship," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(7), pages 1655-1672, May.
    14. Haifeng Qian & Zoltán J. Ács & Roger R. Stough, 2015. "Regional systems of entrepreneurship: the nexus of human capital, knowledge and new firm formation," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 14, pages 257-285, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Dirk Dohse & Sascha Walter, 2012. "Knowledge context and entrepreneurial intentions among students," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 877-895, November.
    16. Del Giudice, M. & Scuotto, V. & Garcia-Perez, A. & Messeni Petruzzelli, A., 2019. "Shifting Wealth II in Chinese economy. The effect of the horizontal technology spillover for SMEs for international growth," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 307-316.
    17. Keungoui Kim & Alberto Nonnis & Altay Özaygen & Dieter F. Kogler, 2023. "Green-tech firm creation in Germany: the role of regional knowledge," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 97-120, March.
    18. Lattacher, Wolfgang & Gregori, Patrick & Holzmann, Patrick & Schwarz, Erich J., 2021. "Knowledge spillover in entrepreneurial emergence: A learning perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    19. Maksim Belitski & Sameeksha Desai, 2016. "Creativity, entrepreneurship and economic development: city-level evidence on creativity spillover of entrepreneurship," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1354-1376, December.
    20. Maksim Belitski & Rosa Caiazza & Erik E. Lehmann, 2021. "Knowledge frontiers and boundaries in entrepreneurship research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 521-531, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:54:y:2022:i:2:p:347-369. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.