In this chapter, we propose a novel methodology that aims at establishing what is the role of "location" in shaping firm growth. Along with the traditional determinants (like, e.g., age, size, financial constraints and others), geographical location is alleged to drive firm growth. The current...

A series of recent papers have introduced some explorative methods based on Ripley’s K-function (Ripley in J R Stat Soc B 39(2):172–212, <CitationRef CitationID="CR43">1977</CitationRef>) analyzing the micro-geographical patterns of firms. Often the spatial heterogeneity of an area is handled by referring to a case–control design, in...</citationref>

The presence of knowledge spillovers and shared human capital is at the heart of the Marhall-Arrow- Romer externalities hypothesis. Most of the earlier empirical contributions on knowledge externalities, however, considered data aggregated at a regional level so that conclusions are based on the...