The Business of Improving Neighborhoods. A Critical Overview of Neighborhood-Based Business Improvement Districts (NBIDs) in Sweden

This article offers an overview of neighbourhood-based BIDs (NBIDs) in Sweden. Swedish NBIDs tend to appear in stigmatized residential areas engaging with pressing sets of urban issues that have been longstanding concern of social policy. Their overarching goal is raising property values in neighborhoods on the edge between urban decline and (re)development potential. Emerging in a neoliberalizing institutional context, NBIDs present themselves as correctives to public-policy failures by promoting property-oriented solutions. The adaptation of the BID model in the Swedish ‘post-welfare’ landscape, however, exhibits, and arguably exacerbates, the shortcomings found in BID elsewhere. Their opaque institutional structure and lack of accountability contribute to curbing democratic influence over local development, thus reinforcing spatial inequalities. We argue that the growing political advocacy for the institutionalization of the BID model in Sweden presents a new milestone in the neoliberalization of urban governance, as private actors are promoted to legitimate co-creators of urban policy.

Economic Storytelling, Tourism Improvement Districts and University Partnerships

Business Improvement Districts (BID), sometimes called Tourism Marketing Districts (TMD) are innovative initiatives that levy assessments as a means of funding what might be traditionally paid for by local government. A recent increase in such organizations internationally may provide universities with an opportunity for a variety of positive benefits including revenue, research, educational improvement, and impactful student experiences. Universities and colleges have a history of partnering with industry, often referred to as University-Industry Partnerships (UIC), as a means for confronting ever-increasing economic challenges and shrinking budgets. Indeed, as funding for public universities continues to decrease, schools and departments within the university are forced to seek alternative revenue streams. The goal of the current study is to provide a conceptual model for understanding and engaging in economic storytelling as the research arm of such organizations. A case study of the partnership between San Diego State University and San Diego’s Tourism Marketing District is assessed against a model of best practices in partnering. Results highlight the value of the model and provide direction for other University-Industry Partnerships (UIC).

Places of Phygital Shopping Experiences? The New Supply Frontier of Business Improvement Districts in the Digital Age

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have flourished as local governance structures to foster the vitality and viability of traditional shopping districts that have struggled to adapt to retail changes. This paper examines the evolution of placemaking activities that former UK government-funded pilot BIDs have delivered over the last 15 years. Drawing on an exploratory sequential research design that combines a qualitative and quantitative thematic analysis of 72 BIDs’ business plans, the findings suggest that UK BIDs have described a non-hierarchical operational framework as services providers considering that: (i) elementary placemaking services, such as ‘clean, green and safe’, have regained thematic relevance due to recent environmental sustainability concerns; (ii) higher-tier lobbying and advocacy services have been an operational priority since BIDs’ inception; (iii) while consumer and place marketing/branding services have seen continual thematic reductions, digital presence and marketing services have emerged as a new category of operational activities. These results extend place management and BID-related literature by discussing the growing role that digital marketing services may perform in the management of town centers and high streets and are relevant to practitioners as it discusses how place management organizations should reposition their operational strategies towards the creation of places of phygital shopping experiences.

Business Improvement Districts: A Systematic Review of an Urban Governance Model towards City Center Revitalization

For some time, business improvement districts (BIDs) have entered into the discourse and practice of academics and urban planners. This model for town centre revitalization was created in North America, whose success has led to its transfer to a growing number of countries. This evolution highlights the importance of BIDs as an urban planning practice, as well as an object of study for academics interested in new models for intervening in central urban areas. BIDs are public–private partnerships, framed within an entrepreneurial logic of urban management that aims to increase the cities’ competitiveness. In this article, we aim to unfold the main research subjects of the literature focused on BIDs. We develop a systematic review for said endeavor, resorting to the established PRISMA protocol. After the screening and analysis of selected articles, four main research subjects were documented: (i) urban governance; (ii) urban policies: mobility and transfer; (iii) activities/axis of intervention; and (iv) types of BIDs/places of intervention. The selected literature enhances the contradictory nature of BIDs, ranging from the economic revitalization of city centres to the occasional exclusionary stance, in which it is developed. Our analysis also points to the important role of different actors in all stages of the policy transfer and implementation.

Taxes and Economic Development: An Update on the State of the Economics Literature

There is a large literature examining the effect of taxes and tax concessions on local economic development. The last comprehensive review of taxes and economic development, however, was Wasylenko’s review in 1997, which mostly examined the location response of firms. Subsequent to the last major review of the literature, empirical work in this area sought to address endogeneity concerns that plagued previous studies, resulting in a series of compelling new studies. This article reviews the empirical literature on tax-based economic development incentives produced since Wasylenko’s 1997 review and covers property tax (including tax increment financing and business improvement districts); spatially targeted and zone-based tax concessions; firm-specific incentives; and corporate income taxes. The review focuses on academic studies that employ modern program evaluation or quasi-experimental techniques and U.S.-based policies.