Attracting creative talent with strong values
How do you attract a society’s creative talent to a particular town or region? Through values – as demonstrated by Sebastian Zenker’s work, which is supported by the foundation.
Background
In the still-young discipline of city and regional marketing, the focus has, until recently, been mainly on capital and investors. If a region had enough companies, capital and, consequently, jobs, it would flourish. The reverse conclusion: a local authority need only use subsidies, tax breaks and infrastructure development to attract companies to its area; the rest will follow naturally.
Recently, however, this simple economic ‘rule’ has been called into question. “Keep your tax incentives and motorway junctions; we will go where the highly skilled people are,” says Carley Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Increasingly, the human factor is coming to the fore in location analysis. Talented individuals, high potentials, elites and creative minds are in demand – they are regarded as the key to economic growth.
Research questions and hypotheses
But why do these people choose a particular city? Which factors influence their choice of location? In the literature, reasons for choosing a location are usually divided into hard and soft factors. Hard factors include, for example, job prospects, the cost of living and the availability of housing. Soft factors include, for example, the social environment, a society’s values and cultural offerings.
The initial aim of the research project was to identify the relevant hard and soft evaluation factors for a city. The hypothesis was that soft factors (such as a city’s tolerance and openness) dominate decisions on where to live amongst the target group of creative professionals – in contrast to the respective comparison groups. A society’s values, in particular, represent an important incentive for these people to migrate to or remain in a city or region.
Results
The results of the studies conducted during the first phase of the project confirm the assumption that soft location factors – and, above all, values such as openness and tolerance – contribute significantly to residents’ satisfaction. The findings show that, across all respondents – regardless of social class, income or education – such values have a strong influence on satisfaction. It also became clear that higher resident satisfaction is reflected in a lower likelihood of people moving away.
The second phase of the study focused on the specific value structures of various target groups and their expectations regarding the values of an urban society. This revealed that certain target groups (such as so-called ‘young professionals’) preferred more performance-oriented values, whilst other groups (e.g. the ‘Creative Core’) felt more strongly connected to general values (e.g. kindness) and values of individual freedom. The ‘value fit’ between a target group’s value structure and the city’s stereotype significantly influences the desire to remain in a city or, where there is no such fit, to move to another city.
In a third stage of the research, the city brand of Hamburg was analysed using a specific example and examined for the values it embodies. This revealed, for example, that ‘openness and tolerance’ represent a central association with the city of Hamburg. Furthermore, the results suggest that urban development changes, such as the construction of the Elbphilharmonie, tended to weaken this image association, whilst the International Building Exhibition (IBA) on the Elbe Islands brings this important association to the forefront of the city of Hamburg’s brand essence.
Further research
Dr Sebastian Zenker is currently conducting research as part of a collaborative project between Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Hamburg into the factors influencing residents’ identification with their city. The aim is to determine how such a process of identification can be further strengthened – particularly with regard to the integration of different cultural groups within a city.