This paper focuses on how urban policies and the clustering of creative industries has
influenced urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable
under some form of intellectual property law. More specifically, this subsector encompasses
software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and research and
development. The cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where
policy induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego;
Seattle; Austin; Washington DC; Dublin (Ireland); Hong Kong (China); and Bangalore (India).
The key research questions motivating the paper are: What types of cities are creative?
What locational factors are essential? What are the common urban policy initiatives used by
creative cities? The paper first explores the importance of the external environment for
innovation and places it in the larger context of national innovation systems. Based on a study of
development in Boston and San Diego, the paper isolates the factors and policies that have
contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. In both cities, universities
have played a major role in catalyzing the local economy by generating cutting-edge research
findings, pro-actively collaborating with industries, and by supplying the needed human capital.
In addition, these two cities benefited from the existence of anchor firms and active industry
associations that promoted fruitful university-industry linkages.
Many cities in East Asia are aspiring to become the creative hubs of the region.
However, their investments tend to be heavily biased towards infrastructure provision. Although
this is necessary, the heavy emphasis on hardware has can lead to underinvestment in developing
the talents and skills needed for the emergence of creative industries in these cities.