Should I stay or should I go? Knowledge spillovers, technological level, and new-firm survival

Should I stay or should I go? Knowledge spillovers, technological level, and new-firm survival | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Should I stay or should I go? Knowledge spillovers, technological level, and new-firm survival Martina Aronica, Maria Michela Dickson, Diego Giuliani, Davide Piacentino This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557832/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in The Journal of Technology Transfer → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Knowledge spillovers are abundantly investigated in the literature as important sources of entrepreneurship. However, the absorption mechanisms of knowledge spillovers by firms are complex and, in some cases, heavily constrained by barriers that allow firms to enter the market but then hinder them from remaining and becoming incumbents. This paper aims to evaluate these barriers by estimating the risk of new-firm failure as dependent on local industrial environments. Moreover, the study explores how these relationships are influenced by a firm’s technological level. No robust evidence has been provided to date on this issue, and this paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by focusing on a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms. Specifically, we look at businesses that started their activities in 2017 and estimate the risk of market exit over six years. Our findings reveal that high-tech firms are more vulnerable in terms of failure risk after entering the market. However, intra-industry spillovers (the industrial diversity of the local economy) moderate this risk, while inter-industry spillovers (the industrial specialisation of the local economy) have the opposite impact. knowledge spillovers high-tech firm diversity specialisation new-firm survival Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in The Journal of Technology Transfer → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6557832","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":451246165,"identity":"655688c2-63f0-40ed-87c1-3c36fd099256","order_by":0,"name":"Martina Aronica","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Palermo","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Martina","middleName":"","lastName":"Aronica","suffix":""},{"id":451246166,"identity":"78721628-e468-4065-90c1-b1f3007d22c1","order_by":1,"name":"Maria Michela Dickson","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Padua","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maria","middleName":"Michela","lastName":"Dickson","suffix":""},{"id":451246167,"identity":"63147740-227b-49dc-8224-f00f327bee9e","order_by":2,"name":"Diego Giuliani","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Trento","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Diego","middleName":"","lastName":"Giuliani","suffix":""},{"id":451246168,"identity":"9e32d2fa-0b57-4101-b7fc-dc35a25b1727","order_by":3,"name":"Davide Piacentino","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Palermo","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Davide","middleName":"","lastName":"Piacentino","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-29 15:23:06","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557832/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557832/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-025-10229-3","type":"published","date":"2025-06-25T15:56:51+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85686150,"identity":"d6582d3f-cbc3-4894-8f72-a37d3cae8b9d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-30 16:03:55","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":493510,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptIIroundfinalrevisionnotrackfinal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6557832/v1_covered_4482fbcf-9591-4388-9feb-775fa2c1b45a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Should I stay or should I go? 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