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REGIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKS AS CONDUITS FOR KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS: EXPLAINING PERFORMANCE OF HIGH‐TECH FIRMS
Author(s) -
BOSHUIZEN JOHANNES,
GEURTS PETER,
VAN DER VEEN ANNE
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2009.00528.x
Subject(s) - high tech , economic geography , empirical examination , lift (data mining) , sample (material) , business , black box , industrial organization , economics , labour economics , marketing , chemistry , chromatography , artificial intelligence , political science , computer science , actuarial science , law , data mining
The purpose of this paper is to open the ‘black box’ of knowledge spillovers by testing the extent to which social interactions between firms in a region positively contribute to firm performance. Specifically, we examine the Marshall‐Jacobs controversy, a debate over whether these spillovers occur across firms operating in similar or dissimilar fields. Our empirical examination of the debate relies on a dataset that is constructed from three sources: firm‐level data of 1,881 high‐tech firms in all 40 Dutch regions, regional economic data and network data constructed from the membership registrations of all business associations in a sample of 11 regions. The results show that the total amount of regional network activity has no effect on individual firm performance; however, participation in local business networks does support firm employment growth. With regards to the Marshall‐Jacobs controversy, the results show that having local links to other high‐tech firms is conducive to a firm's employment growth, while links to other types of firms provided no such lift.