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.

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.