Section 1: Database validation / ANALYSIS
Methods and analysis
- Secondary data analysis. Looking for data validation.
- Descriptive analysis of the main characteristics of the Digital economy cluster in Hull.
- Data visualization tools to see the emerge of patterns
Findings start with a Circular Dendrogram that represents the distribution of the Hull Digital Economy Cluster after data validation and specifying new addition into the preexistent database organized by year, sector. The analysis also shows 14 companies not indexed by Duedil as companies within the Digital Economy.
By doing an emerging coding process with data I found different issues with information regarding 86 of the indexed companies , such as companies not actually located in Hull being listed as so, inactive companies that haven’t been removed from the database or companies that has been being wrongly assigned to a category that do not quite adjust to their main activity. There are also a large number (the largest, to be fair) of “ghost” companies that are untraceable online. The result of emergent coding analysis per issues is compiled by the following codes: errors in location, keyword tagging, status (inactive) and problems finding any trace of the company on the web. To visualize the percentage of representation I used a pie chart. After interrogating if there is any correlation between issues founded and years of the creation of the companies I used an alluvial diagram that showed no evidence of correlation.
Analysis on the companies with no issues founded starts with a count of companies per industry sector visualized with a sector bar chart depicting the distribution per sector. The results of the analysis are aligned with the information provided by recent reports (that is, App & Software development (14), E-commerce & marketplace (13), Digital advertising & Marketing (12) and, IoT & connected devices (6) are the most prevalent sectors in the Hull’s digital economy cluster). A pie chart to visualize the distribution of companies with no issues by cluster show the two monitored clubs during the research, which are two relevant hubs in the digital economy sector for their connections both with the university environment (The Enterprise Centre) and the startup and entrepreneurship environment (C4DI - Center for Digital Innovation). To understand the nature and the relations linked to the business culture of the two main hubs and from there, infer on global representations on the city’s digital economy cluster map I combined cold data analysis with contextual interviews and ethnographic observations both online and on sites. Being myself an active user inside the city's digital economy community, some insights are also part of an autoethnographic process of going to community events and participating in entrepreneurship programs both in Hull and in other regions within the North Powerhouse cluster, such as Leeds. Many shreds of evidence point out the C4DI as the most active network. Even if C4DI only agglomerate the 29% of the companies it is leading and driving the network with activities and opportunities.