ABSTRACT Innovation is an elemental part of regional economic growth. In the past years, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have enabled new means for data collection, and analysis for the study of regional innovation systems. This paper investigates innovation and technology messaging in Twitter, which has been described as the SMS of the Internet. The concept of electronic capital (e-capital) is applied in order to find out how technology messaging relates to the economic situation in metropolitan areas. The recently introduced concept of e-capital is cultivated from the conceptualizations of innovation acknowledging that different forms of capital, including human, social, and economic, circulate and have an effect on each other. The analysis indicates that clusters of e-capital and potential growth clusters are identifiable by using Twitter activity. In Europe, e-capital agglomerates to previously identified clusters of the “Blue Banana” and the “Golden Banana” (or the “Sun Belt”). Based on spatial statistics, we apply Categories of Metropolitan Areas (COMAs) in order to classify Twitter intensive locations across Europe. We defined four COMAs and estimated their e-capital potential. The most problematic COMA lies in Eastern Europe whereas the strongest concentration is found in Western Europe.

中文翻译：

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欧洲大都市区的电子资本和经济增长：在基于技术的城市分析中应用社交媒体消息

摘要 创新是区域经济增长的重要组成部分。在过去几年中，信息和通信技术 (ICT) 为区域创新系统研究的数据收集和分析提供了新的手段。本文研究了 Twitter 中的创新和技术消息传递，它被描述为互联网的 SMS。应用电子资本（e-capital）的概念是为了了解技术信息如何与大都市地区的经济状况相关联。最近引入的电子资本概念源于创新的概念，承认不同形式的资本，包括人力、社会和经济，循环并相互影响。分析表明，使用 Twitter 活动可以识别电子资本集群和潜在增长集群。在欧洲，电子资本聚集到先前确定的“蓝香蕉”和“金香蕉”（或“太阳带”）集群。基于空间统计，我们应用大都市区类别 (COMA) 来对整个欧洲的 Twitter 密集位置进行分类。我们定义了四个 COMA 并估计了它们的电子资本潜力。问题最严重的昏迷发生在东欧，而西欧的集中度最高。我们应用大都市区类别 (COMA) 来对整个欧洲的 Twitter 密集位置进行分类。我们定义了四个 COMA 并估计了它们的电子资本潜力。问题最严重的昏迷发生在东欧，而西欧的集中度最高。我们应用大都市区类别 (COMA) 来对整个欧洲的 Twitter 密集位置进行分类。我们定义了四个 COMA 并估计了它们的电子资本潜力。问题最严重的昏迷发生在东欧，而西欧的集中度最高。