Do University Based Regions Really Attract Outside Entrepreneurs - the Case of the German Biotechnology Industry

26 Pages Posted: 31 Aug 2005

See all articles by Oliver Heneric

Oliver Heneric

Center for European Economic Research (ZEW)

Dirk Engel

University of Applied Sciences Stralsund; Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen)

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

The paper tests empirically the role of knowledge stocks to explain the regional distribution of Germany's biotechnology founders. We present an unique approach to highlight the role of knowledge spillovers as we differentiate according the local embeddedness and research affinity of founders. As expected, the results of our multivariate analysis indicate a high start-up activity in knowledge intensive regions. Group differentiation shows that knowledge stock variables matter only for academic founders inside as well as outside the region. In contrast, the start-up activity of non-academic founders coming from inside or outside the region cannot be explained with knowledge intensity of the region. Our empirical results suggest that knowledge spillovers matter, but these spillovers only attract founders with high affinity to research.

Keywords: Biotechnology, start-ups, economic geography, intellectual capital, count data model

JEL Classification: R30, C21, R58, O30

Suggested Citation

Heneric, Oliver and Engel, Dirk, Do University Based Regions Really Attract Outside Entrepreneurs - the Case of the German Biotechnology Industry (2005). ZEW Discussion Paper No. 05-61, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=790326 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.790326

Oliver Heneric (Contact Author)

Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

Dirk Engel

University of Applied Sciences Stralsund ( email )

Zur Schwedenschanze 15
Stralsund, DE 18437
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.fh-stralsund.de

Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen) ( email )

Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
Essen, DE 45128
Germany

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