Seminar by Caio Giusti Bianchi

SALA SEMINARI – 1° PIANO, PALAZZO LEVI CASES, VIA DEL SANTO 33 - ORE 12.30

17.10.2018

Seminar by Caio Giusti Bianchi  Phd. ESPM, Escola Superior de Propaganda/Publicidade e Marketing, São Paulo – Brasil

Title: Detrminants of Cities' Innovative Capacity: conceptual model proposition through cognitive causal mapping based on social actors’ perspective (experts, creative class, and citizens)

Abstract: Urban development is an increasingly challenging and relevant issue for contemporary society. With the evolution of economic cycles and technological advances, there is a continuous transition of essential elements for the economic development of cities. One of the aspects observed in the contemporary market is the impact of creativity and innovations in shaping the scenario in which we live. However, the economic impacts of creativity and innovation are not limited to the corporate sphere, but can also be applied to public management and internationalization. In addition to the empirical elements, the development of the concept of creative cities has been scarce and fragmented in the literature, undermining the possibility of applying it with efficiency in the generation of empirical models of urban development. From these empirical and conceptual motivations, the research proposes a conceptual model that indicates the impact of social and institutional factors on the development of cities.  A research plan was designed to achieve such aim. It was divided into four independent scientific papers, but with cumulative contributions to the final objective.The first paper, entitled "Creative Cities: Consolidating the Concept in a Comprehensive Approach," is a literature review of the concept of creative cities. The research was the starting point of the thesis, allowing the authors to familiarize themselves with the state of the art of the subject. After reviewing the literature, the authors identified that the definition of the concept is fragmented, so definitions and manifestations were categorized inductively and a network of citations was generated, allowing the authors to propose a multidimensional definition of the concept that encompasses previous scientific development.The second paper, entitled "Using Cognitive Causal Mapping to Propose and Test Structural Equation Models," is a methodological research that addresses the use of cognitive causal mapping to propose and validate structural equation models. The research arose from the need of the authors to propose and empirically validate the methodology that will be used in the last article of the thesis. With the literature review of the two methodologies, the authors propose a methodological roadmap that allows the synergic use of both. For validation, an application was made with university students and, after analyzing the results, the methodology was validated in relation to this experiment. The third article, entitled "Making Research Easier: comparing split and comprehensive questionnaire results in cognitive causal mapping", is a methodological research that validates the authors' proposition to apply split questionnaires in cognitive causal mapping. The research emerged from the hurdles faced in the previous article due to the number of questions in the  data collection instrument; hurdles that would be repeated in the fourth paper. A review of the literature on split questionnaire design and cognitive causal mapping was performed, allowing authors to propose a methodological roadmap for elaboration and application of split questionnaires. These questionnaires, empirically validated through a comparative application with university students, present the same result, validity and reliability of complete questionnaires for cognitive causal mapping. The fourth article, entitled "Determinants of Cities’ Innovative Capacity: model proposition through cognitive mapping" is the final empirical research of the thesis that will appropriate the contributions of the three previous papers. In it, the definition and dimensions of creative cities proposed in the first article will be applied to the methodology proposed in the second article, and the data collection instrument will be elaborated from the script proposed in the third article.Thus, the result of the thesis will be a conceptual causal model that allows the authors to understand  how the individual cognitive map is related to the perciveness of social and institutional factors that influence the cities’ innovative capacity. The data for model design will be collected with three research samples (experts, creative class workers and citizens) in two cities (São Paulo and Milan), allowing the authors to compare models from different perspectives and propose an internationally applicable framework.