| Summary: | This thesis includes three distinct manuscripts which help to elucidate the impacts of location externalities on entry strategies and performance of heterogeneous new ventures, as well as on the overall regional entrepreneurial activity. The first manuscript studies location choices of de novo entrants as a function of their initial resources and capabilities. It reveals that weak and strong entrants have distinct preferences for various location attributes reflecting both the differences in externalities they face and the value of such externalities in facilitating entry, maturation, and future prospects of profitability. The second manuscript reveals that geographical industry clustering matters to survival of new entrants. Moreover, firm specific factors and strategies which enhance survival vary significantly between different levels of industrial clustering. It shows that the initial endowments of resources and capabilities provide longer adolescence period for firms in clusters. The third manuscript argues that the causal links between entry and failure rates also flow from failure to entry. It shows that exit of local older firms stimulate entry and renewal. For the empirical analyses I used a longitudinal data set developed by Statistics Canada, which provides detailed firm level data for all firms operating in Canada from 1984 to 1998 as well as their employment, financial characteristics, industry affiliation, and location. === Business, Sauder School of === Graduate
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