The role of local embeddedness and non-local knowledge in entrepreneurial activity

Mikhail Martynovich ()

Small Business Economics, 2017, vol. 49, issue 4, No 3, 762 pages

Abstract: Abstract The article investigates whether the history of individuals’ spatial relocation has an impact on their propensity to perform an entrepreneurial entry and post-entry performance of firms they start. By looking at entrepreneurs in the IT services sector in Swedish non-core regions between 1991 and 2010, the article investigates the interaction between individuals’ embeddedness in local networks and their exposure to external knowledge accumulation opportunities across different geographical settings, as well as its impact on their entrepreneurial activities. The results of the analysis suggest that individuals with broad spatial relocation histories are more likely to start IT firms in non-core regions, which, in turn, may be expected to survive longer. It is, therefore, claimed that non-local knowledge accumulated through spatial relocation is an important complement to embeddedness in local networks in non-core regions. This complementarity is further related to the evolution of the IT services sector over time.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mobility; Locational behavior; Spatial biographies; Local embeddedness; Non-local knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 L26 L86 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-017-9871-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:49:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11187-017-9871-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-017-9871-9

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().