Start-ups,Innovation and Knowledge Spillovers

The Journal of Technology Transfer - The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE) seeks to explain the mechanisms of how uncommercialized knowledge can be turned into new to market...     

Skills and regional entrepreneurship capital formation: a comparison between Germany and Portugal

Entrepreneurship capital has frequently been characterized as an important determinant of regional economic growth. Yet, we have limited knowledge about what explains why certain regions are more successful in creating entrepreneurship capital in general and in particular in technology- and knowledge-intensive sectors. In this paper, we shed light on the skill base of a region in terms of its endowment with human capital and the composition, i.e. specialization or diversity, of skills. Moreover, we look at the context in which entrepreneurship capital formation takes place by focusing on differences in the institutional infrastructures for entrepreneurship in two European countries: Germany and Portugal. Based on harmonized datasets, our results indicate important differences between the countries. Specifically, our results suggest that both specialization and diversity theories hold, and that the effects are thus contingent on regional factors.     

Adjustment, Stabilisation and the Analysis of the Employment Structure in Turkey: An Input- Output Approach

The aim of the paper is to examine the effects on employment of the large-scale structural adjustment programme undertaken by Turkey from the early 1980s onwards. In this respect, we particularly analyse how appropriate the choices of factor intensity after structural adjustment programme have been in the domestic production in comparison with the availability of domestic factor endowment. Our findings show that foreign trade in intermediate goods creates extra use of domestic labour, which can be considered as the labour cost of importing intermediate goods. This is the case in the majority of industries in the pre- and post-liberalisation period in Turkey. However, the capacity of using extra labour as a result of importing intermediate goods appeared to have decreased in the post-liberalisation period.     

The ivory tower approach to entrepreneurial linkage: productivity changes in university technology transfer

Academic entrepreneurship has been intensively applied to the area of technology innovation and diffusion in the US. Along with the promotion of innovative approaches, universities take advantage of knowledge spillovers from their laboratories to the market for both economic development and financial gains. This study assessed individual university productivity in technology transfer using feasible measures of multiple input–output combinations and data envelopment analysis to examine panel data gathered over the period 1999–2007. A major finding is that there was substantial growth in the average productivity of university technology transfer during this period. The average annual productivity gain in the 90 universities was over 30%, indicating that universities’ technology transfer activities were relatively efficient in terms of their input to output ratio. The positive shifts in average productivity changes were primarily due to the increasing frequencies of commercial outputs. This finding suggests that universities and public policy should pay attention to stimulate commercial activities rather than to increase investments for upgrading a next level of realistic, long-term strategies.     

Boundary spanning between industry and university: the role of Technology Transfer Centres

Technology Transfer Centres (TTCs) have been analyzed in the last few years by focusing on the relationship between a TTC, provider of knowledge-intensive services, and a firm client-receiver. Less attention has been devoted to a more complex relationship which involves in the dyadic provider-receiver tie a third relevant body, University. We provide both a theoretical and an empirical contribution by studying whether TTCs can bond the academic and industrial system and we define the activities that make-up this role such as: scanning and selection of R&D opportunities, bridge building, semantic translation of domain specific knowledge, co-production of new knowledge. The boundary spanning role of TTCs is discussed drawing on different and complementary theoretical perspectives. Moreover, we test research hypotheses on the antecedents of boundary spanning activity from a knowledge-based perspective. We argue that TTC boundary spanners need to leverage on both technical skills and networking competences. Empirical investigation has been carried out with a survey of the TTC population of North East Italy. The research findings highlight the task coordination activities implied by a boundary spanning role in joint R&D projects and show that the endowment of human capital at individual level and a qualified social capital at individual and organizational level are the main determinants.     

Impact of public seed-funding on academic spin-offs

In the entrepreneurial economy of today, it is not the multinational firms which are the predominant driver in the creation of new knowledge, but the individual entrepreneur. Correspondingly, new ventures of small size are leading in commercializing new knowledge and transferring it to the market. This economic shift has been reflected by broad entrepreneurship policies, which aim at supporting the individual on the challenge of a high-growth start-up. However, prior experience shows that uniform entrepreneurship policies do not address the individual needs in different countries and ecosystems adequately. In this paper, we study the performance of academic spin-offs that received public funding from the German EXIST Business Start-Up Grant, a support program which aims at increasing the number of innovative start-ups from academia. Using a control group matching approach, we provide evidence that these start-ups are smaller by two full time equivalent employees, generate 1.7 times higher losses and have a nearly three times lower return on capital than science-based entrepreneurial firms with comparable characteristics in the first 5 years after foundation. We interpret these results to be primarily caused by the inferior financial contracting structure of the program compared to private venture capital funding and by the resulting adverse selection and incentive effects on the entrepreneurs. The evidence calls for rethinking public interventions in a national system of entrepreneurship.     

Investment-decision criteria and resource allocation in transition

This paper develops an analytical framework tointegrate static and dynamic effects of theoreticallyrelevant and practically applied investment-decisioncriteria on the marginal rate of substitution betweeninvestment and labour. The new propositions are relatedto the ranking of relative present value, Kalecki'sindex of efficiency and the static version ofrecoupment period criteria. Investors in post-communisteconomies have switched from the recoupment period tothe criteria based on discounting. This is aninstitutional change typical for these economies. Itimplies a choice of techniques with lower investmentintensity, which is best supported by government'spolicy to promote labour mobility.     

农民工养老保险参保行为及其影响因素分析——基于江苏五市(县)的调查数据

本研究基于江苏五市(县)调查数据,反映了农民工养老保险参保状况与模式,并对影响农民工参保的个体特征、外出打工原因、收入、流动性、制度、留城意愿六个方面的因素给出了解释.调查结果表明,当前农民工养老保险参保率低的问题主要是由制度障碍造成的,包括缴费年限太长、养老关系接续转移困难;个体特征中的性别和年龄影响比较显著,文化程度的影响相对较低;城市之间的流动性对参保行为的显著影响,说明养老关系接续转移存在的困难和农民工对养老保险制度的信任度不高.在进城之前,农民工的个体特征已基本成型,流动性强也是客观事实,因此,要提高农民工养老保险的参保率,须从破除制度障碍入手.     

Total factor productivity and the role of entrepreneurship

The absence of evidence in the scholarly literature for a tested long-term relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth is at odds with the importance attributed to entrepreneurship in the policy arena. The present paper addresses this absence, introducing entrepreneurship using four different and accepted models explaining the total factor productivity of twenty OECD countries with data for the period 1969–2010. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is not addressed in these models. We show that in all models—as well as a joint one—entrepreneurship has a significant influence while the remaining effects largely stay the same. Entrepreneurship is measured as the business ownership rate (number of business owners per workforce) corrected for the level of economic development (GDP per capita).     

Creativity,entrepreneurship and economic development: city-level evidence on creativity spillover of entrepreneurship

We examine the black box of creativity, entrepreneurship and economic development by asking about the mechanisms through which creativity can influence economic development in cities. We propose that, like the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, creativity spillovers occur and can be slowed by a creativity filter. We examine how creativity and entrepreneurship, and creativity and a melting pot environment, interact to influence urban economic development. Using data on 187 cities in 15 European countries for the period 1999–2009, we advance the extant literature by providing evidence on the existence and dynamics of a creativity filter.     

Getting Out of Debt: Garnishment of Wage in Whose Interest?

Garnishment of wage as a way for creditors to enforce payment by unwilling or insolvent debtors, while very common in Germany and Switzerland, is not very successful. Based on a dynamic model of debtor behaviour, this paper explores two alternatives of reform. One is to reduce the rate of garnishment, which at present amounts to 100 percent of the wage income exceeding a defined subsistence level, thus probably destroying incentives to work. According to model simulations, reducing the rate of garnishment is likely to result in an increase of labour supply but a decrease of garnishment revenue per period. Second, the introduction of a debt release as it exists in the United States would have an ambiguous effect on labour supply. While providing debtors with a fresh start, it would result a partial loss for creditors. A Pareto improvement thus does not seem to be possible. When taxpayers as an involved third party are taken into account, however, a potential Pareto improvement appears attainable through debt release.     

Entrepreneurship research centers around the world: research orientation,knowledge transfer and performance

This work investigates entrepreneurship research centers, and analyzes their research performance. Studies on the determinants of performance of research centers have mainly focused on science and technology, while entrepreneurship has been so far neglected. Through an analysis of 46 centers worldwide, we focus on entrepreneurship research and the role of centers, by discussing how knowledge transfer mechanisms and research orientation affect research performance. Our findings contribute to shed light on the divergence of methodologies and approaches characterizing entrepreneurship research; they also corroborate the view that centers enable a “compound Matthew-effect”, according to which knowledge transfer to external stakeholders, after controlling for research orientation of the center, does foster and enrich research performance.     

The evolution of China’s social policies

The movement of the Chinese economy towards a market-based system brought about a profound change in the nature of the social protection system in China and in the relative incomes of different groups in society. The collectively-provided health care systems failed to adapt to the new economic system, pension provision in urban ceased to be provided for all workers and rewards in the labour market became linked to the market-value of a skills. The result was a significant increase in inequality driven, especially by differences between urban and rural incomes. Since the middle of the last decade, though, inequality has stopped rising and shows signs of declining as increased labour mobility has tended to raise incomes in rural areas. At the same time, a range of new social policies have been introduced. While the level of spending on these policies remains low, they offer a framework for future expansion. There are still some areas where only limited progress has been made, notably concerning the access of migrants to public services in urban areas.     

Designing Efficient Institutions for Science-Based Entrepreneurship: Lesson from the US and Sweden

The recent scientification of commercial technology has brought the interface between universities and industry into sharp focus. In particular, academic entrepreneurship, i.e., the variety of ways in which academics take direct part in the commercialization of research, is widely discussed. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a framework for identifying the strategic individual decisions involved when educational choice is translated into science-based entrepreneurship. Identifying these decisions also allows us to hypothesize what incentive structures should be crucial. Our suggested framework is informally tested by an in-depth examination of the experiences of Sweden and the US. Despite large levels of R&D spending and comprehensive government support schemes, science-based entrepreneurship has been far less important in Sweden compared to the US. Our analysis points to weaknesses in the Swedish incentive structure in key respects: the rate of return to human capital investment, incentives to become an entrepreneur and to expand existing businesses, and insufficient incentives within the university system to adjust curricula and research budgets to outside demand. Several policy measures during the 1990s have reduced the weaknesses in the Swedish incentive structure. The current emergence of a more vibrant entrepreneurial culture in Sweden in some areas is consistent with these changes. Our analysis suggests that a policy aimed at encouraging science-based entrepreneurship should focus on strengthening individual incentives for human capital investment and entrepreneurial behavior both within universities and in business.     

Competing for the Highly Skilled Migrants: Implications for the EU Common Approach on Temporary Economic Migration

Abstract:  Globalisation has increased the mobility of people while rapid development of the knowledge economy places human capital at the centre of economic progress. Both result in competition for highly skilled labour among states, particularly the more-developed states. The EU has a particular role in this global competition for the highly skilled. It is faced with the ageing of its population. Furthermore, the quest to revitalise the EU's economy by implementing the ambitious Lisbon Strategy requires an additional 700,000 research positions. Lastly, the EU is trying to design a common European policy for economic migration, starting with the Green Paper in 2005. This article aims to contribute to a common policy design in the area of highly skilled temporary migration. It compares the UK and German schemes for highly skilled immigrants (the only two in the EU) with the successful US scheme, still seen as the benchmark for the EU. The findings are twofold. First, there is a set of obligatory characteristics that should be introduced to the schemes to make them more attractive. Second, as the programmes are not the only factors that determine the attractiveness of a respective country, the article argues that an EU common policy for highly skilled migrants would make the EU area more attractive as a whole and therefore increase its competitiveness in the global economy.     

Reconsidering the southern Europe model: Dowry, women's work and marriage patterns in pre-industrial urban Italy (Turin, second half of the 18th century)

This paper aims to investigate and analyse the impact of the dowry and the endowment system on marriage and household patterns and on the labour market in 18th century Turin. At the same time it enquires into the reliability of the northern/southern Europe pattern for the study of this topic. Two points are developed. Firstly the paper shows that the dowry system coexists with a relatively high age at marriage because of the specific role played by the dowry in Turin society. Indeed, this was not a once-and-for-all established asset but was a negotiable and flexible resource that could be manipulated by the different actors concerned in the endowment. Moreover, the payment did not always take place immediately upon marriage, nor was the money quickly available. At the same time the paper examines the economic role of dowry in Ancien Régime households: by means of a juridical procedure couples could alienate this property, and use or invest it to ensure their well-being and/or their economic situation. Finally, the second part investigates the relationship between the dowry system and the participation of young girls and married women in the local labour market: their significant and crucial presence demonstrates that the dowry and its expectation was not a sufficient incentive to keep them out of the labour market.     

内地与港澳跨境洗钱犯罪的刑事司法协助问题

洗钱犯罪不仅具有跨国性特点,也具有明显的跨境性。由于内地与港澳刑法对洗钱罪的立法差异,给打击跨法域的洗钱犯罪提出一系列的问题,内地与港澳共同合作打击跨境洗钱犯罪势在必行,包括合理确定跨境洗钱犯罪的刑事管辖权、拓展区际个案协查、促进三地间相互移交逃犯、加强洗钱犯罪收益的没收等四个方面。     

Entrepreneurship and country-level innovation: investigating the role of entrepreneurial opportunities

Since the work of Schumpeter, entrepreneurship has been regarded as a concept that is in close relation to innovation. However, recent country level investigations show that technology innovation and new business creation can be regarded as two separate phenomena. In this paper we provide an explanation for the above contradiction through the distinguishing between two types of entrepreneurship, necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. Building on opportunity theory and rational choice theory, we investigate the influence of both types of entrepreneurship on country-level innovation, and furthermore, pay particular attention to the interaction between opportunity entrepreneurship and the amount of opportunities available. We find that necessity entrepreneurship is inversely related to country-level innovation, whereas opportunity entrepreneurship is positively linked to technological progress. The positive effect of opportunity entrepreneurship, however, diminishes with an increased amount of entrepreneurial opportunities. This interaction indicates that opportunity availability is an important element of a country’s entrepreneurship environment.     

The Malthusian intermezzo: Women's wages and human capital formation between the late Middle Ages and the demographic transition of the 19th century

The paper offers a new explanation for ‘the great conundrum’, the acceleration of population growth in England in the second half of the 18th century. It is argued that it was not only population growth that was ‘different’ in England, but the stagnation of the rise of literacy and of human capital in general, seems to be an anomaly of this period. This ‘conundrum’ has been explained in the following way. It is demonstrated that in England the gender wage gap increased a lot during the early modern period, which was caused by: (a) the switch from post Black Death labour scarcity to labour surplus, which in particular harmed the economic position of women, and (b) changes in the structure of agriculture, leading to the rise of large-scale, capital intensive and labour extensive farms, which had a very limited demand for female (wage) labour. This is also suggested by the fact that on the Continent (in the Netherlands) a much smaller decline of female wages occurred, because there family farms continued to be quite important. Moreover, the decline of English wages had important effects on its demographic development. It helps to explain the decline of the average age of marriage of in particular women between 1600 and 1800, and the related increase in fertility that occurred in this period — resulting in a much faster rate of population growth after 1750 than elsewhere in Western-Europe. It also helps to explain the stagnation in human capital formation that occurred during the 18th and early 19th century — again a feature peculiar for the English development in these years. The explanation of ‘the great conundrum’ is therefore intimately linked to the changing position of women on the labour market and within marriage.