Do University Policies Make a Difference?

Posted: 4 Nov 2009

See all articles by David B. Audretsch

David B. Audretsch

Indiana University Bloomington - School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA)

Erik E. Lehmann

University of Augsburg - Faculty of Business and Economics

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

An examination of whether the institutional differencein universities makes a difference in facilitating spillover and thecommercialization of knowledge is conducted. Specifically, the impacts of twodifferent types of universities in Germany--general universities and technicaluniversities--are studied. Data consists of 276 initial public offering (IPO) firms in Germanycollected from IPO prospectuses and online data sources, such as theDeutsche Boerse AG.It was found that firm growth is negativelyrelated to firm size; knowledge-based firms that access spillovers fromtechnical universities do not have performance advantages over firms thataccess spillovers from general universities; and age, unlike firm size, doesplay a key role in shaping performance for firms that access knowledgespillovers from technical universities. Based on this empirical evidence, it isevident that technical universities do not provide any locational advantage tofirm performance, and thus university policy does not make a difference interms of influencing the performance of knowledge-based startups.(NEE)

Keywords: Organizational policies, University-firm relations, Colleges & universities, Commercialization, Firm growth, Firm size, Firm age, Technical universities, Firm performance, Knowledge transfer, Knowledge spillovers

Suggested Citation

Audretsch, David B. and Lehmann, Erik E., Do University Policies Make a Difference? (2005). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1498253

David B. Audretsch (Contact Author)

Indiana University Bloomington - School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA) ( email )

1315 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

Erik E. Lehmann

University of Augsburg - Faculty of Business and Economics ( email )

Universitätsstr. 16
Augsburg, 86135
Germany

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