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Location Strategies for Agglomeration Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Alcacer

    (Harvard Business School, Strategy Unit)

  • Wilbur Chung

    (R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland)

Abstract

Geographically concentrated industry activity creates pools of skilled labor and specialized suppliers, and increases opportunities for knowledge spillovers. The strategic value of these agglomeration economies may vary by firm, depending upon the relative value of each economy, and upon firm and agglomeration economy traits. To better determine when a firm will be attracted to agglomeration economies, we develop a three-layer framework. The first layer assesses the relative importance of skilled labor, suppliers, and knowledge spillovers. The second layer considers whether firms can benefit from geographic concentration without co-locating. The final layer examines why some firms are more inclined to co-locate than others based upon firm and agglomeration economy traits. We test our framework on the U.S. location choices of new manufacturing entrants between 1985 and 1994 and find that firms are far more attracted to skilled labor and specialized suppliers than they are to potential knowledge spillovers, even in R&D intensive industries. We also find that leading firms will be more attracted to pools of labor, suppliers, and potential knowledge spillovers when their own contributions are less fungible, and cannot be easily leveraged for strategic advantage by proximate competitors.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Alcacer & Wilbur Chung, 2010. "Location Strategies for Agglomeration Economies," Harvard Business School Working Papers 10-071, Harvard Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:10-071
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    Cited by:

    1. Pierpaolo Parrotta & Dario Pozzoli & Mariola Pytlikova, 2014. "The nexus between labor diversity and firm’s innovation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 303-364, April.
    2. Pierpaolo Parrotta & Dario Pozzoli & Mariola Pytlikova, 2014. "The nexus between labor diversity and firm’s innovation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 303-364, April.
    3. Andrea Gauselmann & Philipp Marek, 2011. "Regional Determinants of MNE's Location Choice in Transition Economies," WIFO Working Papers 412, WIFO.
    4. Koen Frenken & Elena Cefis & Erik Stam, 2020. "Industrial Dynamics and Clusters: A Survey," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 10-27, July.
    5. Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Pozzoli, Dario & Pytlikova, Mariola, 2014. "Labor diversity and firm productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 144-179.
    6. Raúl Tarazona-Montoya & Marta Peris-Ortiz & Carlos Devece, 2020. "The Value of Cluster Association for Digital Marketing in Tourism Regional Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    agglomeration economies; location choice; firm strategy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm

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