The role of agglomeration in entrepreneurship: empirical evidence from Italy

Abstract

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has become a central concept in the domain of entrepreneurship, which has received a substantial amount of theoretical and empirical attention. Particularly, the relationship between EO and business performance represents an area of considerable importance where research is needed. Previous studies have illustrated that this relationship may vary across different types of environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of EO on performance at a regional level. To our knowledge, this issue has not been analysed previously at this level of aggregation. This paper implements Italian data on dairy sector and two Italian regions to examine empirically the degree of concentration in the sector and the role of a firm’s agglomeration on the magnitude of the link between EO and an business performance. The results suggest that the current distribution of production places important role in the relationship between EO and business performance.