There's a professor, Economics at Harvard IIRC, who points out some telling characteristics of cities in this regard. Those with large numbers of smaller firms are far more creative in the long run than those with small numbers of large ones. Specific contrast were NYC and its garment district vs. the large industrial cities of Pittsburgh (steel) and Detroit (autos). Ironically, it's the cities which most successfully employ division of labour and assembly-line techniques which are penalised most harshly.

Link in a sec....

Benjamin Chintz came up with the theory. Edward Glaeser is the lecturer.

https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/3uGHCweF...

http://fixyt.com/watch?v=r3Mvz-Mg2_A