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Knowledge about places: Assessing the importance of spatial momentum, imitation and managers' social ties in the location decisions of French firms 1

Neoclassical behavioral assumptions characterize most of the existing empirical research on business location choices. When these assumptions are relaxed, recent works suggest that firms may show a preference for locating in known places. Known places refer to geographical places about which firms can easily gain intimate knowledge, either through their prior local presence, the local presence of other firms or the local social ties of their managers. This research aims at assessing the importance of these behaviors of spatial momentum, imitation and use of managers' social ties in location choices. For this purpose, it uses data collected on location decisions recently taken by French manufacturing and software publishing firms. It is argued that the need for prior intimate knowledge about places, and therefore the extent of the three types of location behaviors cited above, will be stronger for SMEs compared to large firms. The relevance of this argument is tested. Finally, the results obtained and their empirical implications are discussed.