Intercommunity relationships and community growth in China's high technology industries 1988–2000

In this study, we examine how intercommunity relationships affect the growth of organizational communities. Using a unique panel dataset on 53 technology development communities in China spanning 1988–2000, we found that regional community density, a community's geographic proximity to the nearest community and its domain overlap with the nearest community have an inverted U‐shaped relationship with the community's growth. These non‐monotonic results suggest that adjacent communities have both mutualistic and competitive effects on each other. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.