The Southern Californian medical device industry: Innovation, new firm formation, and location

It is demonstrated that a core cluster of high technology device producers in Orange County can be effectively described in terms of the hypothesized tripartite relation.

Abstract

We provide a statistical description of the medical device industry in the United States and Southern California from 1967 to 1987. We briefly lay out a series of theoretical ideas in which we argue that a positive relation is to be expected between product innovation, new firm formation, and locational agglomeration. On the basis of a questionnaire survey of medical device manufacturers in Southern California, we subject this claim to empirical scrutiny. We demonstrate that a core cluster of high technology device producers in Orange County can be effectively described in terms of the hypothesized tripartite relation.