This book offers fresh insights into how companies can engage with, and make use of, the modern metropolis. Based on actor-network theory and the resource-based view of the firm, it demonstrates how the contemporary city can be seen and used as a resource for corporate innovation. The main argument is that companies have to build what the author calls urban innovation networks. After a theory-based outline of such networks, the author demonstrates the extent to which different institutional players companies such as Audi, Ikea and Siemens, but also arts institutions like the Haus der Kunst in Munich are already working to create them. The book combines management thinking with urban theory and the sociology of networks to create a unique blend of different views of capitalism and space, offering a new perspective on both the modern metropolis and globally operating companies active within our distinctly urban culture.

Alexander Gutzmer is professor for media and communication at the Berlin-based Quadriga University and Editorial Director of the publishing house Callwey. He is also editor-in-chief of the architecture magazine Baumeister. Gutzmer worked as a business journalist for the German national weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag and was editor-in-chief of the management magazine think:act, published by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He got a PhD and an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a business degree from Free University Berlin.

Foreword.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Globalized Space Versus Refuge of Locality? Beyond the Global Cities discourse.- 3 Rethinking the City: Actor-Network Theory and the Creation of Urban Connections.- 4 Urban Intensities: Architecture, Design, Affect.- 5 Rethinking Innovation: The Urban Perspective.- 6 Five Urban Stages.- 7 Conclusion.