Density Dependence of Entrepreneurial Dynamics: Competition, Opportunity Cost, or Minimum Efficient Scale?
研究了本地企业密度对创业生存率的负面影响，通过模型区分资源竞争、机会成本和最小有效规模三种机制，实证发现机会成本机制最有力。
This paper reports on a new examination of the well-established negative effect of localized density on survival in established industries. We attempt to discriminate between three competing, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, explanations: resource competition, variations in the opportunity costs of entrepreneurship, and geographic variations in minimum efficient scale (MES). We construct a model of firm growth and survival in which each of these potential causes of density dependence has a transparent parametric effect, and we derive six predictions that collectively allow for discriminating empirical tests. Empirical results using confidential geocoded data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth consistently favor the opportunity cost mechanism. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.