Who Benefits from Agglomeration?

Rigby D. L. and Brown W. M. Who benefits from agglomeration?, Regional Studies. Theories of the firm and strategic management argue that competitive advantage originates in the development and exploitation of assets or capabilities that may be internal or external to the firm. It might be anticipated that older, larger, foreign-owned and multi-plant firms draw upon internal resources more readily than young, small, domestic, single-plant firms. Do the benefits of agglomeration vary among business establishments according to their characteristics? This question is examined using plant-level, longitudinal, micro-data from the Canadian manufacturing sector. It is shown that most manufacturing plants benefit from co-location, but that plants with different characteristics benefit in different ways.