Credit: Yuichiro Chino/Moment/Getty
The GIHI2021 applies scientific, objective, independent and impartial principles in selecting candidate cities. Some indicators and data have been improved in the following aspects:
First, the number of evaluated cities has increased from 30 to 50, while the selection criteria and methods remain unchanged, shining a light on more ‘second-tier’ cities. Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and a few other Chinese cities are now collectively evaluated as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Second, to ensure continuity and keep looking forward, 12 level-2 indicators remain unchanged, and 14 out of 31 level-3 indicators are optimized, and a new level-3 indicator named ‘E-governance Level’ has been added.
Third, the granularity and accuracy of data have been improved. For instance, the ‘number of active researchers (per million people)’ measures the number of researchers who have had publications over the past five years in different cities/metropolitan areas. The ‘number of professional talent inflows’ measures the number of professionals entering into cities/metropolitan areas in the past year as reflected by changes in ‘LinkedIn’ resumes.
Fourth, focus is put on emerging digital economy and cutting-edge technologies. For instance, the innovation capability of cities/metropolitan areas and the evolution of global innovation network are measured by the number of patents granted in two enabling technologies: artificial intelligence (AI) and integrated circuits (ICs).
The GIHI2021 takes a comprehensive view and evaluates GIHs via research innovation, innovation economy, and innovation ecosystem. The results are as follows:
For the overall GIHI2021 ranking, the top 20 cities/metropolitan areas are San Francisco-San Jose, New York MA, London MA, Beijing, Boston MA, Tokyo MA, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Paris MA, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Baltimore-Washington, Munich, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Singapore, Shanghai, San Diego MA, Amsterdam MA, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Copenhagen.
The GIHI2021 top 20 cities/metropolitan areas in research innovation are New York MA, Boston MA, San Francisco-San Jose, Baltimore-Washington, London MA, Beijing, Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh, Copenhagen, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Paris MA, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, San Diego MA, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Stockholm, Amsterdam MA, Munich, Atlanta MA, Pittsburgh, and Houston MA.
The GIHI2021 top 20 cities/metropolitan areas in innovation economy are San Francisco-San Jose, Tokyo MA, Beijing, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, New York MA, Seoul MA, Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe, Boston MA, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Austin, Dublin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Shanghai, San Diego MA, Paris MA, Singapore, London MA, Bengaluru, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, and Munich.
The GIHI2021 top 20 cities/metropolitan areas in innovation ecosystem are London MA, San Francisco-San Jose, New York MA, Beijing, Paris MA, Munich, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Boston MA, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo MA, Amsterdam MA, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Baltimore-Washington, Madrid, Toronto MA, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Phoenix MA.
The GIHI2021 report has drawn the following conclusions:
The global innovation network is changing, and emerging Asian economies are demonstrating vitality. The United States still has an overwhelming advantage in science and technology human resources, knowledge creation, and high-tech manufacturing. European cities maintain their competitive edge in innovation ecosystem, and Asian cities are rising in innovation economy with great potential. As investment in innovation keeps growing, the global innovation network is undergoing significant changes. Research and development, and innovation activities are moving to emerging economies, especially Asian cities. Digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are reshaping industrial labour division and innovation landscape around the world.
Chinese cities are emerging as new GIHs. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, China maintains strong economic momentum and sees the emergence of innovative companies with huge potential. Beijing still leads in the innovation economy and makes significant progress in research innovation and innovation ecosystem. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area makes an excellent debut in the list, particularly in the innovation ecosystem and innovation economy indicators. Other Chinese cities, such as Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Hefei, and Chengdu, are active in innovation economy and are soon expected to become GIHs.
GIHs have varied patterns and positioning in innovation development. San Francisco-San Jose and New York MA achieve balanced and complementary progress in three level-1 indicators while other cities/metropolitan areas have respective advantages as measured by different indicators. GIHs take unique development strategies and paths based on their regional resource endowment and characteristics.
Gathering top science and technology talents and enhancing the level of knowledge creation are key to laying a strong foundation for GIHs. Cities in the United States dominate in research innovation for their excellent performance in knowledge creation and concentration of top talents. This shows the key to strengthening the foundation of GIHs during the new round of technological and industrial revolutions is to stay on the cutting edge, serve national and market demand, gather top science and technology personnel, and improve knowledge creation.
GIHs have their respective strengths in integrated circuits (ICs) and artificial intelligence (AI). Cities/metropolitan areas in the United States, Japan and South Korea are far ahead of others in the number of IC patents. For instance, Tokyo MA, San Francisco-San Jose and Seoul MA host a concentration of the world’s leading semiconductor chip manufacturers, and Chinese cities/metropolitan areas are catching up in AI.
Emerging industries are gaining momentum in Chinese cities with a dynamic innovation and entrepreneurial environment. Beijing, Greater Bay Area and Shanghai are among the top 10 cities in innovative enterprises, the number of unicorn companies on the list in Hangzhou exceeds those in cities/metropolitan areas including Tokyo MA, Paris MA, and Munich, suggesting that Chinese cities enjoy certain advantages in emerging digital technologies like AI and are riding the new economy momentum.
The digital economy is booming. Despite the total operating income of industries slumping in 2020 due to the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital economy has boomed. The pharmaceutical and chemical industries, digital healthcare industry, and remote working industry have experienced explosive growth during the pandemic, and digital-related industries including data service and software service have recorded high growth in operating income, indicating great potential.
An innovation ecosystem is the basis of sustaining competitive advantage of GIHs. European cities generally score well in innovation ecosystem for their residents’ relatively high average education levels, large inflow of professional talents, and excellent public services. In terms of openness and collaboration, the global cooperation network keeps expanding, and Asian cities are playing an increasingly important role in the cooperation network of publications and patents. The broadband network will be an essential building block in fostering the innovation ecosystem in the era of digital economy with expanding applications and increasing demand for e-government platforms.