Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the entrepreneur as a creator and disseminator of novelty in the economy centre stage.
The emergence of novelty creates variety in any evolving system, but the generation of
novelty requires heterogeneous elements as inputs to the recombination process underly-
ing it (Witt, 2005). This brings us to cognitive theories.
Cognitive theories of innovation emphasize that innovation is a product of interaction
between actors that have sui ciently dif erent knowledge in order to make transforma-
tive (Schumpeterian) new combinations, but are still sui ciently proximate in a cognitive
sense in order to be able to communicate at all (Nooteboom, 2000). On the micro level
these innovations are most likely to be realized by spin-of i rms pursuing opportunities
that are based on the existing knowledge base of the parent i rm, but sui ciently dif erent
to exploit it outside the parent organization. Empirical studies have shown that indus-
tries like instruments manufacturers (Audia et al., 2006) and automobiles (Boschma
and Wenting, 2007; Carroll et al., 1996; Klepper, 2002) have emerged in this way: the
successful early entrants in the automobile industry came from related bicycle produc-
ers, carriage builders, and engine manufacturers, while the successful early entrants in
the instrumentation industry came for example from machine, defence, and chemicals
industries (Audia et al., 2006).
Organizational ecology studies populations of organizations, focusing on how they
change over time, especially through demographic processes of selective replacement
- organizational founding and mortality (Carroll and Khessina, 2005). The evolution-
ary triad of variation, heredity and selection is central in the organizational ecology
approach. Organizational foundings are predicted with notions like density depend-
ence, structural inertia, niche width, and resource partitioning (see Carroll and Hannan,
2000). Organizational density is driven by organizational foundings and af ects com-
petition and legitimacy of a particular organizational form. Organizational inertia and
imprinting are important mechanisms of retention. In this i eld new i rms are often ana-
lysed as organizational products (Audia et al., 2006; Audia and Rider, 2006; Freeman,
1986).
Finally, network studies emphasize the role of information acquisition and resource
mobilization via social networks in the behaviour of individuals and groups. Key issues
related to entrepreneurship are processes of opportunity identii cation and resource
mobilization (Sorenson, 2003; Stuart and Sorenson, 2007). These literatures all take
into account the role of entrepreneurship in creating something new, which is somehow
related to the past, and is af ected by and af ects its context.
3. Regional conditions of entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are hardly lone individuals who rely primarily on their extraordinary
ef orts and talents to overcome the dii culties inherent in the formation of a new i rm.
The process of starting a new i rm is eminently social, as information and resources are
to a large extent acquired via the personal networks of the (nascent) entrepreneur. For
nascent entrepreneurs the focal choice is what kind of i rm to start given their location,
not so much choosing a location for a given i rm (Stam, 2007). The social ties of the
potential entrepreneurs are likely to be localized, and induce entrepreneurs to start their
i rm in close proximity to their homes and to their current employers (Cooper and Folta,
2000; Parwada, 2008; Sorenson, 2003; Stam, 2007). It is a stylized fact that entrepreneurs
start their i rm in the region where they live and/or work. The fraction of entrepreneurs
