Urban Innovation Networks ― Understanding the City As a Strategic Resource

This book offers fresh insights into how companies can engage with, and make use of, the modern metropolis. Based on actor-network theory and the resource-based view of the firm, it demonstrates how the contemporary city can be seen – and used – as a resource for corporate innovation. The main argument is that companies have to build what the author calls “urban innovation networks.” After a theory-based outline of such networks, the author demonstrates the extent to which different institutional players – companies such as Audi, Ikea and Siemens, but also arts institutions like the Haus der Kunst in Munich – are already working to create them. The book combines management thinking with urban theory and the sociology of networks to create a unique blend of different views of capitalism and space, offering a new perspective on both the modern metropolis and globally operating companies active within our distinctly urban culture.

Alexander Gutzmer is professor for media and communication at the Berlin-based Quadriga University and Editorial Director of the publishing house Callwey. He is also editor-in-chief of the architecture magazine “Baumeister”. Gutzmer worked as a business journalist for the German national weekly newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” and was editor-in-chief of the management magazine “think:act”, published by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He got a PhD and an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a business degree from Free University Berlin.