Meta-Synthesis of Influential Social Drivers in the Development of Urban Innovation and Knowledge-Based Hubs

Social drivers provide the ground for the attraction of elites and the realization of the knowledge-based city as one of the important paradigms of the future city. The purpose of the present research is to synthesize the extensive literature regarding the influential social drivers in the development of urban innovation and knowledge-based hubs. The current research is a review in terms of its purpose, and its method is qualitative. The statistical community includes all the studies from the 1990s to 2022 (1223 sources). First, 892 sources were removed by reviewing the title, and 156 sources by reviewing the abstract. Then, the content of 175 sources was fully reviewed and analyzed, and finally, 43 articles were selected for final analysis. Cohen's kappa coefficient was equal to 0.733 with a significance level of 0.000, indicating the research's appropriate reliability. The research results show that the social drivers of innovation and knowledge-based hubs have five distinct consisting of sense of place, social capital, social integration, social well-being and socio-cultural development. Also, social drivers have 10 dimensions (including a sense of belonging to the community, social structure, infrastructure of knowledge workers, well-being, community structure, human capital, shared basis, form, image, function, and environment) and 31 components. In total, innovation and knowledge-based hubs have 115 indicators. The category of social integration includes 24% of all indicators. Other categories of sense of place, community capital, socio-cultural development, and human well-being comprise 33%, 20%, 12%, and 11% of the total indicators, respectively.