Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity in Founding Patterns
研究了组织种群在空间和时间上的异质性，发现新企业创立率受邻近区域密度影响，且创业活动受多个局部演化时钟驱动，社会传染通过人员流动扩散新组织形式。对荷兰会计行业的实证分析支持了这些异质性模式。
A growing body of literature suggests that populations of organizations are not homogeneous, but instead comprise distinct subentities. Firms are highly dependent on their immediate institutional and competitive environments. The present paper further explores this issue by focusing on the spatial and temporal sources of industry heterogeneity. Our goal is threefold. First, we explore founding rates as a function of spatial density, arguing that density-dependent processes occur along a geographic gradient ranging from proximate, to neighboring, to more distant contexts. Second, we show how multiple, local evolutionary clocks shape such entrepreneurial activity. Third, we provide evidence on how diffusion processes are directly affected by social contagion, with new organizational forms spreading through movements of individuals. Results from data on the Dutch accounting industry corroborate these patterns of heterogeneity.