Urban restructuring and the location dynamics of P-KIBS in postsocialist Belgrade

ABSTRACT

Professional knowledge-intensive business services (P-KIBS) have emerged as one of the core elements of economic recovery and urban restructuring of many large cities during the postsocialist transition in Europe. However, studies about intrametropolitan patterns of P-KIBS in postsocialist cities are largely neglected. Against this backdrop, the aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of P-KIBS intraurban spatial patterns within a postsocialist urban environment by analyzing the location dynamics of P-KIBS in Belgrade. The research methodology includes using a micro-geographic dataset for the period 2011–2019 and distance-based methods, which are becoming increasingly popular in urban geography. The study demonstrates that in Belgrade, P-KIBS are spatially highly concentrated and centralized, with a strong center-periphery gradient as well as pronounced intraurban functional specialization and intrasectoral differences. In the observed period, the spatial reorganization of P-KIBS was characterized by spatially limited decentralization, reflected in the progressive dissolution of the traditional monocentric model and the creation of a centralized duocentric model through the emergence of a secondary CBD in New Belgrade. In particular, the research highlights the influence of the complex process of postsocialist urban restructuring in the shaping of the urban geography of P-KIBS.

KEYWORDS:

• Belgrade
• postsocialist transition
• P-KIBS
• location analysis
• urban restructuring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Such as architecture, IT services, research and development, and technical services.

2. Advertising, along with other KIBS such as design, architecture, multimedia and internet applications, and branding is often classified into a group of creative KIBS (C-KIBS) (Dell’era, Landoni, and Verganti 2015).

3. This is due to the differences in the urban contexts that are the subject of studies, but also to the methods used and the industrial classification.

4. In such studies, P-KIBS are often compared to particular T-KIBS activities or finance, insurance, and real estate.

5. Belgrade’s GDP decreased from 4.4 to 2.4 billion Euros between 1989 and 2000, while the number of employees decreased by 140,000 (UPIB 2003).

6. According to estimates from 1993, the volume of the shadow economy in Serbia in relation to the country’s registered GDP was 54%. At the end of the 1990s, this share decreased to about 34% (Arandarenko 2015).

7. The borders of the Center of New Belgrade zone were taken from the urban division according to the Master Plan of Belgrade (2003). This zone fully encompasses the new business district in New Belgrade (Jovanović and Ratkaj 2014).

8. The only other similar example known to the author is the secondary business district in the Służewiec district in Warsaw (Smętkowski, Moore-Cherry, and Celińska-Janowicz 2020).

9. The construction of office space was also encouraged by the quantitative and qualitative shortage of office space in the central zone. New Belgrade has more than 95% of the total class A office space in Belgrade (Vuković 2019) and 70% of space in shopping centers.

10. Activities of Head Offices and Market Research and Public Opinion Polling, also commonly classified as P-KIBS in many studies, were excluded from this analysis due to insufficient number of firms.

11. This was important because the large number of employees registered in these companies could potentially skew the study results if they were not excluded from further analysis. This was performed by checking the national register list of employment agencies and the official websites of all medium and large companies in datasets.

12. This paper applies Quartic function commonly used in such analyses (Leslie 2010; Chainey 2013).

13. Standard deviation values for both establishments and employment are not calculated for areas with a kernel density of zero for firms or employees.

14. One of the reasons for the increase in the legal services subsector was the introduction of enforcement and notary agencies into the Serbian legal system in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

15. However, some old city cores in postsocialist cities were more neglected compared to Belgrade, which resulted in somewhat extensive decentralization process of P-KIBS.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the Ministry Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia [451-03-47/2023-01/200091]. The author expresses special gratitude to the company CUBE team D.O.O Beograd for their generous assistance with data gathering.