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  • 2023
  • Working Paper

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Events, Knowledge Spillovers, and Entrepreneur Performance in Togo

By: Stefan Dimitiadis and Rembrand Koning
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:99
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Abstract

Spatial proximity between firms plays a crucial role in entrepreneurship by creating knowledge spillovers, enabling resource sharing, and sparking productivity gains. Building on these insights, research has explored whether institutions and organizations can engineer these agglomerative conditions through events that encourage knowledge spillovers, collaboration, and resource sharing, regardless of proximity. Here we argue that the primary value of such events often lies more in catalyzing connections between neighbors, rather than engineering connections no matter how far participants are from one another. Using data from a networking event in Togo, during which entrepreneurs were randomly assigned to meet with peers from across the city of Lomé, we find that entrepreneurs who were assigned to neighboring peers were much more likely to sustain a relationship with them, learn from their management knowledge, and in turn benefit more: profits increase by 10% when entrepreneurs get to know three neighbors during the event who are on average 1 km closer after the event. Our results highlight the important role distance plays in both shaping the “search costs” of meeting a new peer and the “relational costs” of sustaining relationships with them.

Keywords

Local Range; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Productivity; Togo

Citation

Dimitiadis, Stefan, and Rembrand Koning. "Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Events, Knowledge Spillovers, and Entrepreneur Performance in Togo." Working Paper, February 2023.
  • SSRN

About The Author

Rembrand M. Koning

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • December 2022
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    Lyra Health: Transforming Mental Health

    By: Rembrand Koning and Nicole Keller
    • October 2022
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    Single Earth: Science White Paper Supplement

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More from the Authors
  • Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Rembrand Koning
  • Lyra Health: Transforming Mental Health By: Rembrand Koning and Nicole Keller
  • Single Earth: Science White Paper Supplement By: Rembrand Koning and Emer Moloney
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