(Elsevier, 2023) Pindado Tapia, Emilio; Sánchez García, Mercedes; García Martínez, Marian; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Gestión de Empresas
This study sheds light on the relationship between agglomeration, entrepreneurs' internal resources and capabilities, and new ventures' innovativeness using a multilevel framework. We argue that the urban agglomeration
of economic agents within a country has an inverted U-shaped relationship with new ventures' innovativeness,
suggesting that both insufficient and excessive agglomeration might be detrimental to entrepreneurial innovativeness. Additionally, we perform interactions between individual level factors and urban agglomeration to
examine the differential effects of entrepreneurs' internal resources and capabilities. Results confirm our
hypothesising that the geographical concentration of economic agents within a country exerts an inverted Ushaped influence on new ventures' innovativeness. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurs with higher levels of
education or prior entrepreneurial experience are better equipped to benefit from agglomeration and to mitigate
its negative effects; in contrast, at low levels of agglomeration, entrepreneurs with lower resources exhibit
increasing marginal returns. Entrepreneurs in contact with other entrepreneurs are better positioned to deal with
agglomeration externalities although their benefits and drawbacks are intensified. Our research contributes to
the understanding of agglomeration externalities and entrepreneurial innovativeness, its non-linear dynamics
and differential effects.
