Home sweet home for Dutch game developers: A study on the location choices of game developers, agglomeration or the home advantage

Abstract

Abstract

In this study the location choice of game developers is the central subject. Location factors based on classical theories have been incorporated as hard factors such as price of office spaces, transportation cost and the availability of qualified staff. Softer factors influenced by Richard Florida have been incorporated as well. These factors relate to qualities that a city may have such as being tolerant and having certain cultural amenities. In addition to these factors some literature on embeddedness of entrepreneurs have been incorporated since many creative firms tend to be of a small size meaning that the founder has a stronger influence. Based on a Serie of semi structured interviews it was found that especially for small Dutch game developers there is a strong influence on their degree of social embeddedness. Most of the game developers are present in a certain city because they happened to live there. In addition, most of the developers started their firm originally form their own home location meaning that they are economically embedded as well. The location choice of an office space within a city was found to be mainly influenced by hard factors first and soft factors second. The most prominent hard factors were the prices of the office space. Another important factor was the degree of accessibility of the firm by public transport. Soft factors were found to become more important as the firm matures, the atmosphere of a certain district becomes more prominent in the location choice at that stage. The importance of the quality of the building was also found to become more important over time. The main reason for this is since the factor of the cost of the office space diminishes in importance.