The location patterns of audio-visual communication firms in Barcelona

This paper analyses the location patterns of audio-visual communication firms, a cultural and creative industry that includes activities related to motion picture, video, and television programme production, post-production and projection activities, as well as sound recording and music publishing activities. Firms in the industry tend to agglomerate in the core of large metropolitan areas to benefit from the economies arising from this clustering. Using Mercantile Register data, our results indicate a strong agglomeration pattern at the core of the Barcelona metropolitan area, as well as close inter-industry linkages with other cultural and creative industries. This location behaviour is explained by path dependence processes rather than as the result of cluster-based policies to encourage the concentration of such firms in some areas of the city. In view of these results, policy measures aiming to foster firms’ competitivity should be more selective and target the specific areas preferred by audio-visual communication firms.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)