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High performers in complex spatial systems: a self-organizing mapping approach with reference to The Netherlands

The Annals of Regional Science volume 48, pages 501–527 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper addresses the performance of creative firms from the perspective of complex spatial systems. Based on an extensive high-dimensional database on both the attributes of individual creative firms in the Netherlands and a series of detailed regional facilitating and driving factors related, inter alia, to talent, innovation, skills, networks, accessibility and hardware, a new methodology called self-organizing mapping is applied to identify and explain in virtual topological space, the relative differences between these firms and their business performance in various regions. It turns out that there are significant differences in the spatial and functional profile of large firms vis-à-vis SMEs across distinct geographical areas in the country.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Spatial Economics, Free University, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp

  2. GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-5302, USA

    Daniel Arribas-Bel

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  1. Karima Kourtit
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  2. Daniel Arribas-Bel
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Correspondence to Karima Kourtit.

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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Kourtit, K., Arribas-Bel, D. & Nijkamp, P. High performers in complex spatial systems: a self-organizing mapping approach with reference to The Netherlands. Ann Reg Sci 48, 501–527 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-011-0483-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-011-0483-z

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