Benchmarking of world cities through Self-Organizing Maps

This paper argues that there is a global trend towards the highest possible performance among functionally specialized and heterogeneous world cities in different parts of our world. It aims to map out the relative disparities in competitive performance among a preselected set of major global cities by offering a hierarchical benchmark analysis of these cities on the basis of a recently completed comparative study on their socio-economic ‘power’, as exerted and/or perceived by various groups of relevant urban stakeholders. The analytical tool employed to highlight and better understand the relative (hierarchical) position of these cities from a topological perspective is based on Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs), which depict in a multidimensional space the similarities among the cities under consideration. The empirical results are presented and interpreted from the perspective of a benchmark ranking of the various cities involved, while finally also an actor-oriented analysis of the distinct performance components of these cities is provided.

► Our paper offers a systematic performance assessment of major global cities in the world.
► The analytical tool employed to enhance the visualization is based on Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs).
► This provides a insightful comparative of the cities for various stakeholders.
► The study is based on a recent comparative study on the socio-economic ‘power’ of global cities.
► An actor-oriented analysis of the distinct performance components of these cities is provided.