Resistant, Path Creation, or Resilient? An Empirical Study of 87 Innovative Cities Worldwide

Abstract

This study proposes rigorous concepts of resilient, resistant, and path-creation behaviors for urban patenting and innovation studies. The study examines the responses of cities with different regional innovation system (RIS) characteristics when facing a crisis. The concepts allowed us to identify resilient cities based on crisis responses and RIS characteristics. Our study identified cities exhibiting resilient behaviors, such as Taipei and San Jose, demonstrating the ability to recover from a crisis in terms of patenting and sustain high levels of performance in localized learning. For cities with resistant behaviors, such as London, we observed that their momentum for patenting decreased, although they were endowed with RIS performance comparable to the resilient cities. Cities such as Shenzhen exhibit path-creation behaviors, demonstrating the ability to transform and achieve performances on par with the resilient cities. Unformed RIS cities demonstrate low patenting activities and have yet to configure a base for technological activities. The concept and formulated quantitative process to distinguish cities performing in patenting lay new ground for studies on urban economic resilience.