Henley Wide Lunchtime Research Seminar - What’s the buzz? Entrepreneurial action and localised innovative atmosphere as reflected by social media

You are cordially invited to attend a Henley Wide lunchtime research seminar by Professor Carlo Corradini. Please join us in the ICMA building Room G09. If you have not received the email invite please email Angie Clark

Please note: Lunch and refreshments will be provided at 12.30 pm in the Old Atrium, outside G03/G04 in ICMA. It is important that you confirm if you are attending in-person to assure enough catering is supplied on the day. If you have any dietary restrictions, please let us know as soon as possible.

Date: Wednesday 17^th May 2023

Time: 13.00 – 14.00 pm (lunch at 12.30 see above)

Where: Room G09, ICMA Building

Title: What’s the buzz? Entrepreneurial action and localised innovative atmosphere as reflected by social media

Presenter: Professor Carlo Corradini

Teams – A Teams link to the seminar is included for those who cannot attend in person, however attendance in person is preferred.

Abstract: The concept of buzz has been introduced in economic geography literature to emphasise the importance of informal institutions reflecting localised norms, values and interests that collectively define the character of places to fully understand the variation in innovation and entrepreneurial activities across regions. However, the intangible nature of buzz has eluded empirical scrutiny thus far.

The seminar will focus on opportunities and challenges in trying to capture innovative buzz through a novel approach based on text analysis of information available from social media, and in particular geolocated data from Twitter.

We merge information from 180 million geolocated Tweets comprising almost two billion words across the UK for the year 2014 to capture the extent of ‘innovative’ buzz within 168 NUTS3 regions with ONS data on new firm formation as well as data from the UK Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM]. Then, we explore whether innovative buzz - defined by a relatively higher intensity of discussion and vibrancy around topics related to innovation - may provide a more effective set of informal resources for sharing and recombination of ideas, leading to higher regional firm entry rates as well opportunity as opposed to necessity driven early-stage entrepreneurship.

The seminar will comprise insights and analysis from working papers and published work, as well as comments on possible directions for future research using natural language processing in economic geography.