A top-down creation of a cultural cluster for urban regeneration: The case of OCT Loft, Shenzhen

Jung Won Sonn (), Kelly Wanjing Chen, He Wang and Xiao Liu

Land Use Policy, 2017, vol. 69, issue C, 307-316

Abstract: Researchers of related topics agree that the large-scale top-down development of a creative cluster by a real estate developer may obstruct rather than facilitate creativity and creative entrepreneurialism. OCT Loft, a design industry park in Shenzhen, China, is being celebrated as an exception. Based on analyses of primary and secondary data, we find that the Loft’s success can be attributed to two factors. First, the choice of design as the target industry was appropriate. Design is a fast-growing industry and thus needs space for expansion. Second, the developer chose tenants with good reputations in the industry rather than those offering the highest rent. Both these factors are difficult to implement. First, a growing industry is hard to find in a city where urban regeneration is needed. Second, the majority of developers cannot pass up maximising rent for a good reputation as OCT did. Indeed, OCT was able to pursue the Loft’s creative success because giving a good impression to potential clients was expected to result in future opportunities that would raise profit further. In sum, a large-scale top-down development can facilitate creative entrepreneurialism but only when the developer is not hasty in demanding an immediate return on investment.

Keywords: Shenzhen; China; Cultural industry cluster; Creative industry cluster; Urban regeneration; Overseas Chinese Town (OCT); Design industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837716305257
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:69:y:2017:i:c:p:307-316

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.09.024

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().