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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

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October 3, 2022
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Article

Entrepreneurial innovativeness: When too little or too much agglomeration hurts

Publicated to: RESEARCH POLICY. 52 (1): 104625- - 2023-01-01 52(1), DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104625

Authors:

Pindado, E; Sánchez, M; Martínez, MG
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Affiliations

Kent Business School - Author
Tech Univ Madrid, Dept Agr Econ Stat & Business Management, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Kent, Kent Business Sch, Canterbury, Kent, England - Author
Univ Publ Navarra, IS FOOD Res Inst, Dept Business Adm, Pamplona, Spain - Author
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Author
Universidad Pública de Navarra - Author
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Abstract

This study sheds light on the relationship between agglomeration, entrepreneurs' internal resources and capabilities, and new ventures' innovativeness using a multilevel framework. We argue that the urban agglomeration of economic agents within a country has an inverted U-shaped relationship with new ventures' innovativeness, suggesting that both insufficient and excessive agglomeration might be detrimental to entrepreneurial innovativeness. Additionally, we perform interactions between individual level factors and urban agglomeration to examine the differential effects of entrepreneurs' internal resources and capabilities. Results confirm our hypothesising that the geographical concentration of economic agents within a country exerts an inverted U-shaped influence on new ventures' innovativeness. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurs with higher levels of education or prior entrepreneurial experience are better equipped to benefit from agglomeration and to mitigate its negative effects; in contrast, at low levels of agglomeration, entrepreneurs with lower resources exhibit increasing marginal returns. Entrepreneurs in contact with other entrepreneurs are better positioned to deal with agglomeration externalities although their benefits and drawbacks are intensified. Our research contributes to the understanding of agglomeration externalities and entrepreneurial innovativeness, its non-linear dynamics and differential effects.
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Keywords

absorptive-capacitydynamic capabilitieseconomic-growthexternal knowledgefirm heterogeneityfirm performanceinnovationknowledge spilloversmoderating rolemulti-level analysisproximity paradoxquality entrepreneurshipspatial heterogeneityurban agglomerationDecent work and economic growthEntrepreneurshipFirm heterogeneityInnovationMulti-level analysisProximity paradoxResearch-and-developmentUrban agglomeration

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal RESEARCH POLICY due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 32/407, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Management. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 5.4. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.51 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-09, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 25
  • Scopus: 27
  • Google Scholar: 10
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-09:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 143.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 143 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 16.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 19 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/72611/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 248
  • Downloads: 194
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, with a probability of 52% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United Kingdom.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (PINDADO TAPIA, EMILIO) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been PINDADO TAPIA, EMILIO.

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Project objectives

El estudio persigue los siguientes objetivos: analizar la relación entre la aglomeración urbana y la innovación en nuevas empresas, evaluando su forma de U invertida; examinar cómo los recursos y capacidades internas de los emprendedores interactúan con la aglomeración para influir en la innovación; determinar el impacto diferencial de la educación y experiencia previa de los emprendedores en la capacidad para aprovechar o mitigar los efectos de la aglomeración; caracterizar los efectos de la interacción entre emprendedores en contacto y la aglomeración; y contribuir a la comprensión de las externalidades de aglomeración y sus dinámicas no lineales en la innovación emprendedora.
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Most relevant results

El estudio analiza la relación entre la aglomeración urbana, los recursos internos de los emprendedores y la innovación en nuevas empresas mediante un enfoque multinivel. Los resultados más relevantes son: (1) la aglomeración económica presenta una relación en forma de U invertida con la innovatividad de las nuevas empresas, donde tanto niveles bajos como altos afectan negativamente; (2) emprendedores con mayor educación o experiencia previa aprovechan mejor la aglomeración y reducen sus efectos negativos; (3) en contextos de baja aglomeración, emprendedores con menos recursos muestran rendimientos marginales crecientes; (4) el contacto entre emprendedores intensifica tanto los beneficios como las desventajas de la aglomeración; (5) se evidencian dinámicas no lineales y efectos diferenciales en la innovación empresarial.
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