Description
This paper explores technological, economic and spatial factors underlying change in the New Media/digital design sector in Vienna. Vienna has the highest concentration of firms specialising in New Media technology areas. In recent years this emerging sector has exhibited growth and diversification in Austria's main metropolitan city as well as in Austria nationally. Using both cyclical and evolutionary perspectives of cluster change this paper analyses the relationship between firm, sectoral, technological and spatial factors and cluster development. Clusters are defined as interconnected companies and institutions in a similar field which are also geographically concentrated (Porter, 1998). Clusters go through different phases shaped by technological heterogeneity, and subsequent changes in products, services and firm specialisations. Local firms take on and respond to technological opportunities renewing clusters and destroying previous cluster specialisations. These perspectives are used to explore change processes in the New Media sector in Vienna. This paper uses both primary and secondary data on New Media firms in Vienna. Primary data was collected using 30 semi-structured interviews with managerial staff in local firms. Secondary data was sourced from the central national database on registered wage earners, and the national creative industries survey (carried out bi-annually since 1998) to analyse changes in growth rates and size distribution of firms in the creative industries in Vienna. Preliminary findings suggest that Vienna's New Media sector emerged and grew since the 1990s, characterised by a high growth in IT-based design sectors. Aspects such as global technological dynamism in these areas, increase in local demand for creative services, and government subsidies for creative industries supporting formation and growth of local firms are found to be important.| Period | 23 Jan 2014 → 25 Jan 2014 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 2nd Geography of Innovation Conference |
| Event type | Unkonwn |
| Degree of Recognition | International |
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