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Externalities or Experience? Localization Economies and Start-up Business Survival

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  • Henry Renski

Abstract

This study examines whether spatial variations in the human capital of business owners help explain why the failure rates of new businesses tend to be lower in areas where similar businesses are concentrated. More specifically, I test whether the prior industry experience of the firm's owner/founder has a mediating influence on the relationship between industrial localization and new business failure for six industry sectors. Localization is found to have either a beneficial or a damaging relationship to new firm survival, depending on the industry in question. Localization reduces the likelihood of failure in two sectors, while competition effects prevail in two others. When industry experience is added to the models, the benefits of localization diminish, but only for entrants in the business, professional, and information services sector and only by a small amount. This suggests that at least some of the observed benefits of localization are due to regional differences in embodied human capital, but localization economies remain significant. Further study is needed to see if such mediating effects are common among a wider array of more narrowly defined industries and for other forms of entrepreneurial human capital.

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  • Henry Renski, 2015. "Externalities or Experience? Localization Economies and Start-up Business Survival," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 458-480, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:46:y:2015:i:3:p:458-480
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    2. Tobias Ebert & Thomas Brenner & Udo Brixy, 2019. "New firm survival: the interdependence between regional externalities and innovativeness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 287-309, June.
    3. Tavassoli, Sam & Jienwatcharamongkhol, Viroj & Arenius, Pia, 2021. "Colocation of Entrepreneurs and New Firm Survival: Role of New Firm Founder’s Experiential Relatedness to Local Entrepreneurs," Papers in Innovation Studies 2021/13, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    4. Joseph Farhat & Sharon Matusik & Alicia Robb & David T. Robinson, 2018. "New directions in entrepreneurship research with the Kauffman Firm Survey," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 521-532, March.
    5. Gao, Xing & Meng, Jing & Ling, Yantao & Liao, Maolin & Cao, Mengqiu, 2022. "Localisation economies, intellectual property rights protection and entrepreneurship in China: a Bayesian analysis of multi-level spatial correlation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114290, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Matt Saboe & Simon Condliffe, 2020. "Explaining New Firm Survival: Is the Firm, Owner, or Agglomeration at Fault?," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 323-343, April.

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