Geographical media reputation and technology entrepreneurship Preeta M. Banerjee Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA Abstract Purpose – Geographical location has been of noted importance for technology entrepreneurship, i.e. technology clusters. While social resources have been investigated as strategic in management literature, media reputation appears to be an overlooked reason why technological entrepreneurship has been less prevalent in some geographical locations, despite there being fertile economic parameters. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Utilizing methodology developed by Rindova et al. to explore how media (local and foreign) describes technological entrepreneurship (local and foreign), the paper compares Boston, MA and Kolkata, India in terms of positive or negative valenced recognition and explores their relation to technology entrepreneurship location. Findings – Geographical media reputation is contextualized and does not transfer readily. Unlike the absolute positives of economic reasoning, positive media reputation in the local context does not scale globally. Also, negative reputation is very hard to overturn at the global level. Social resources often have their own social dynamics that are localized in culture and environment. Research limitations/implications – This paper is an exploratory, illustrative analysis of the relation between geographical reputation at local and global levels and the location choice of technology entrepreneurship. Other factors do exist that the paper does not examine specifically but tries to match through sample selection, realizing no two geographical locations can ever be exact matches and in this case are rough equivalents. Originality/value – Geographical location imputes social resources – namely media reputation – that can affect the location choice of technology entrepreneurship beyond economic considerations. Keywords Geographical location, Media reputation, Social resources, Technology entrepreneurship, Valenced recognition Paper type Research paper Introduction The location choice of technology entrepreneurship has been a well-investigated management decision. Location provides the environmental conditions of technology entrepreneurship and the context for growth (Feldman, 2001; Shirokova and Shatalov, 2010). In fact, one of the largest areas of study on location choice finds the occurrence of technology clusters, which is the grouping of technology entrepreneurship within a region around new technology development (Breschi and Malerba, 2001). Technology clusters have been a focus for understanding entrepreneurial and innovative characteristics and potential for developing economic growth in a region. In particular, Porter and Stern (2001) highlighted four attributes of a location’s microeconomic environment that affect overall firm competitiveness as well as innovation – the presence of high-quality and specialized inputs; a context that encourages investment together with intense local rivalry; pressure and insight gleaned from sophisticated local demand; and the local presence of related and supporting industries. This line of reasoning has primarily been an economic one. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-8269.htm Received 1 December 2011 Revised 1 September 2012 Accepted 9 December 2012 Management Research Review Vol. 36 No. 10, 2013 pp. 975-990 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2040-8269 DOI 10.1108/MRR-12-2011-0264 Geographical media reputation 975