Nature of technology and location effects on firm performance in the US medical device industry

This paper examines the location effects on firm performance (sales, employment and market

value) by analyzing geographical and technological proximities in the US medical device

industry. The nature of technology is introduced as a new way to scrutinize the impact of

various proximities, and the findings indicate that the geographical and technological proximity

in itself does not affect performance, whereas the spatially-mediated technological proximity,

characterized by the technological proximity within a cluster, positively influences the

performance of medical device firms. The paper addresses an important theoretical question.

It consequently contributes to the effects of different proximities and nature of technology on

firm performance and provides relative managerial implications interlocked with insights

obtained from the medical industry.