The microfoundations of cluster stickiness—walking in the shoes of the entrepreneur

摘要

This paper offers a microlevel explanation for the uneven spatial and sectoral concentration of firms across national boundaries. Focusing on the geographical movements of (prospective) entrepreneurs and the cognitive processes that underlie new business formation, it is suggested that powerful forces work against the entrepreneur's active response to business opportunities that present themselves in geographically distant locations. As a result, clusters tend to evolve in locally distinct ways and over time maintain their unique business and technological profiles. The entrepreneurship perspective offers an explanation for cluster stickiness, which differs from and broadens the cost–benefit reasoning that currently dominates the economic geography literature.