Three essays on serial innovator firms and geographical clustering

Small, technology-based firms in the United States play a very important role as drivers of technological and economic change. This research was initiated in the belief that not all small, innovative firms are alike and that firm heterogeneity leads to differences in both locational preferences and performance characteristics between an unusual population of small, highly innovative firms, hereafter labeled serial innovators, and a set of matched technology-based firms hereafter labeled non-serial innovators of similar size.;This study aims to elucidate firm and performance attributes of a population of small, elite firms that assume prominent positions in their respective technological spaces and product markets. More specifically, this study addresses the role of industrial agglomeration on the location and performance characteristics of serial innovator firms. The dissertation was conceived as a collection of three distinct but related essays. The first essay examines whether serial innovator firms are located in technology clusters with higher average values of the location quotient, a measure of regional specialization, than non-serial innovator firms. The same essay reports on whether serial innovator firms are physically located in closer proximity to the science base (research universities) than their non-serial innovator counterparts. The second essay assesses the role and impact of these firms' spatial context on two measures of firm performance in the upstream section of the innovation process. The third and final essay seeks to examine the role of industrial agglomeration on the internationalization efforts of serial innovator firms.;The first essay on the geographical location of firms with high levels of innovative prowess i.e. serial innovator firms vis-à-vis technology clusters and research universities indicates that these firms are not necessarily located in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) with higher average levels of industry clustering than non-serial innovator firm of similar size. Serial innovator firms and their less innovative counterpart firms appear to have the same need and capacity to absorb knowledge spillovers in technology clusters. Further analysis, however, revealed that serial innovator firms in the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology and IT hardware industries are located in MSA's with significantly higher levels of regional specialization than non-serial innovator firms in that industry which suggests an asymmetric need for knowledge spillovers by these firms. Furthermore, serial innovator firms seem to be located in MSA's with a significantly higher number of research universities than a non-serial innovator firm although differences across industries can be noted. This again indicates an asymmetric use and need for academic knowledge spillovers and pecuniary advantages offered by these institutions.;The analysis in the second essay reveals that serial innovator firms located in MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) with elevated levels of industrial clustering do indeed announce significantly more new products than their counterparts located in MSA areas with low levels of industrial clustering. However, no differences in the pace of technological progress of the technologies developed by serial innovator firms located in technology clusters and those outside of clusters was found.;Finally, the research reported in the third essay indicates that the level of industrial agglomeration has a positive impact on the export performance of serial innovator firms and that these firms benefit proportionately more from technology clusters than the non-serial innovator firms.