Local variety and firm diversification: An evolutionary economic geography perspective

The aim of this article is to investigate whether and how local agglomeration forces-related and unrelated variety-influence firm diversification. Using a large dataset of 5112 Italian manufacturing business groups for the year 2001, and estimating Tobit models, we show the 'consistency' between the patterns of firm diversification and that of the local system in which the firm is located. Specifically, firms located in local systems dominated by unrelated variety are more likely to show unrelated diversification patterns, while firms located in local systems dominated by related variety are more likely to show related diversification patterns. This supports the Evolutionary Economic Geography prediction of firm similarity 'within' the same local system, and firm heterogeneity 'between' different local systems.