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Entrepreneurial innovativeness: when too little or too much agglomeration hurts

Pindado, Emilio, Sánchez, Mercedes, García, Martínez, Marian (2023) Entrepreneurial innovativeness: when too little or too much agglomeration hurts. Research Policy, 52 (1). Article Number 104625. ISSN 0048-7333. E-ISSN 1873-7625. (doi:10.1016/j.respol.2022.104625) (KAR id:96876)

Abstract

This study sheds light on the relationship between agglomeration, entrepreneurs’ internal resources and capabilities, and new ventures’ innovativeness using a multilevel framework. We argue that the urban agglomeration of economic agents within a country has an inverted U-shaped relationship with new ventures’ innovativeness, suggesting that both insufficient and excessive agglomeration might be detrimental to entrepreneurial innovativeness. Additionally, we perform interactions between individual level factors and urban agglomeration to examine the differential effects of entrepreneurs’ internal resources and capabilities. Results confirm our hypothesising that the geographical concentration of economic agents within a country exerts an inverted U-shaped influence on new ventures' innovativeness. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurs with higher levels of education or prior entrepreneurial experience are better equipped to benefit from agglomeration and to mitigate its negative effects; in contrast, at low levels of agglomeration, entrepreneurs with lower resources exhibit increasing marginal returns. Entrepreneurs in contact with other entrepreneurs are better positioned to deal with agglomeration externalities although their benefits and drawbacks are intensified. Our research contributes to the understanding of agglomeration externalities and entrepreneurial innovativeness, its non-linear dynamics and differential effects

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104625
Projects: RTI201 8 -093791 - B -C2 1 (MCIU , AE I /FEDE R , UE)
Uncontrolled keywords: Entrepreneurship, innovation, urban agglomeration, proximity paradox, firm heterogeneity, multi-level analysis.
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5351 Business
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and International Business
Depositing User: Marian Garcia
Date Deposited: 14 Sep 2022 09:27 UTC
Last Modified: 15 Feb 2023 12:32 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/96876 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

García, Martínez, Marian.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2689-2417
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