[AOM Presenter Symposium]
Rethinking Geographic Advantage: Knowledge Access, Selection, and Mobility
Session Type: Presenter Symposium
Location: Loews Philadelphia Hotel – Regency A (Second Floor Mezzanine)
Scheduled: August 4 (Tuesday), 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM
Submission: 11962 | Sponsors: TIM, STR
Geography is widely used in management research to explain variation in innovation, entrepreneurship, and firm behavior, yet it is often treated as a general-purpose explanatory construct. This symposium advances a more precise view by distinguishing how geography operates across different domains of economic activity. Drawing on four empirical studies, the session examines geography's role in shaping access to technical knowledge, the spatial allocation of talent, and firm location and mobility decisions. Together, the papers show that geographic proximity works through distinct mechanisms rather than a single logic, clarifying when geographic explanations are most informative and when their effects are limited. The symposium contributes to strategy, and technology and innovation management research by sharpening how geographic context should be theorized and used.
Discussants
Lee Fleming – U. of California, Berkeley
Minyuan Zhao – Washington U. in St. Louis
Presentations and Authors
"Knowledge Without Borders: Brexit, the Geography of Technical Q&A and Innovation"
Annamaria Conti – IE U.
Astrid Marinoni – Georgia Institute of Technology
Maria Roche – Harvard U.
"Mapping the ICT and AI Clusters across the World: Inclusion and Competitiveness"
Mercedes Delgado – Copenhagen Business School
"People or Place? Founder Intentions, Entrepreneurial Regions, and Technology Startups"
Min Jung Kim – Korea U.
Michael Roach – U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Should I Stay or Should I Go: Why High-Tech Firms Leave Agglomerations"
Jing Deng – Arizona State U.
Maryann Feldman – Arizona State U.
Janet Bercovitz – U. of Colorado, Boulder
Organizers
Michael Roach – U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Min Jung Kim – Korea U.
Maria Roche – Harvard U.
Jing Deng – Arizona State U.
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Min Jung Kim
Korea University
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