Location, education and enterprise growth

Abstract

There is a long-standing tradition of attributing the growth of enterprises to unique capabilities expressed through entrepreneurial activities. These are contingent on their exposure to information that signals opportunities, access to external resources that enable capabilities to be built and the existence of prior related knowledge and routines within the firm. This article uses the Norwegian employer–employee register data to investigate whether the likelihood of achieving high growth as defined by the OECD is contingent on the location of the firm, the educational background of its employees and their employment performance prior to the period 2006–2009 for which growth and survival probabilities are estimated.

Keywords:

• growth
• location
• education
• capabilities

JEL Classification:

• D83
• L25
• J24

Acknowledgements

Research for this article was funded by the Research Council of Norway under the project ‘Economic Development Paths in Norwegian Regions’. It is inspired by prior work on this topic funded by Nordic Innovation and presented in the ‘Nordic Growth Entrepreneurship Review 2012’.