The new economic models that determine city success
Source: Cities Today Published: November 1, 2019
Cities that embrace new economic models will attract a greater share of business and investment according to new research, which says that strong economic fundamentals are no longer a city’s main draw.
Demand and Disruption, a report published by JLL in conjunction with The Business of Cities, cites the innovation economy, the experience economy, the sharing economy and the circular economy as changing the competitive equation for cities.
As ways of living and working shift, businesses and investors will increasingly rely on urban attributes such as quality of life, innovation capacity, sustainability credentials, governance and resilience to assess a city’s appeal, rather than traditional benchmarks such as pure economic size and growth indicators. This provides more scope for smaller and second-tier cities to provide a compelling offer and compete successfully for global capital, talent, entrepreneurs and specialised business.
“What businesses need from cities is changing as a result of technological disruption, growing concerns over climate change and geopolitical tensions,” says Jeremy Kelly, Director, Global Research at JLL.
“New economic models are shifting attention to how cities build a customer service culture, foster urban experiences, expand innovation industries and adopt new business models to achieve sustainability.”