Place-making and performance

The impact of walkable built environments on business performance in Phoenix and Boston

Bibliographic Data

ID21247482
AuthorsKevin Credit (0000-0002-3320-4670, Michigan State University, corresponding author), Elizabeth A Mack (0000-0002-1829-8787, Michigan State University), Elizabeth Mack (0000-0002-8859-0580, Michigan State University)
Year2019
Volume46
Issue2
Pages264-285
Publication date2019-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2399-8083 • E-ISSN: 2399-8091
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2399808317710466
OpenAlexW2619335803
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited40

This paper examines the importance of place-making in economic development by evaluating the relationship between specific urban design features – based on Jacobs’ “four generators of diversity” and Ewing and Cervero’s “Five-D’s” – and business sales volume. Despite the increased recognition of the importance of walkable urbanism in recent years, relatively little research has assessed the potential economic development benefits of walkable places. While a few authors have assessed the impact of urban design on property values, this paper fills a gap by examining links between components of walkable built environments and individual business characteristics. This paper uses a Hierarchical Linear Modeling framework to explicitly look at the relationship between neighborhood built environment features at the Census tract level and the sales volume per employee of individual businesses in 2010. The cities of Phoenix and Boston are used as contrasting study sites in order to inspect how larger regional characteristics influence the built environment–performance link. The results indicate that specific features of walkable built environments are positively associated with business performance. However, the relationship between walkable built environments and business performance varies considerably depending on the type of business and city-level context being studied, indicating that significant nuance must be used when considering place-based economic interventions. Although no causal statements can be made about the built environment and business performance, the results of this paper indicate that (in some contexts) design-based place-making initiatives could be used to generate sustainable local economic development

Architectural engineering · Built environment · Business · Civil engineering · Economic geography · Geography · Metropolitan area · Phoenix · Sociology · Transport engineering · Urban planning · Walkability · Engineering · Place Attachment and Urban Studies · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis · Urban Transport and Accessibility

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