Agglomeration externalities, industry life cycle and firm survival: evidence from Chinese manufacturing start-ups

This paper examines the impact of the industrial life cycle on the relationship between agglomeration externalities and the survival of manufacturing start-ups. The empirical study in the Chinese context finds that at the growth and intermediate stages of the industrial life cycle, specialisation and related variety reduce the survival risk of start-ups, whereas unrelated variety does not affect the survival risk. At the mature stage, specialisation and related variety do not affect the survival risk, but unrelated variety reduces the survival risk. This paper enriches the research on the benefits of agglomeration externalities from the perspective of industry evolution.