The potential of VICO and FGMFs datasets Firma convenzione in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Firma convenzione Politecnico di Milano e Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano

Aula Magna – Rettorato Mercoledì 27 maggio 2015

The potential of VICO and FGMFs datasets in relation to space and territory

Massimiliano Guerini

Massimiliano Guerini

RISIS Demonstrator

• Start-ups, SMEs and economic growth: The enabling role of the

territory

• Why start-ups and SMEs?
• Impact on innovation, economic growth and new job creation (e.g.,

European Commission 2012; Audretsch and Keilbach 2004; 2005; Criscuolo et al. 2014)

• In Europe SMEs account for more than one-half of total employment

(European Commission, 2014)

• However, whether start-ups and SMEs can realize their growth potential

depends to the economic and social characteristics of the territory in which they are embedded

Massimiliano Guerini

Regions, innovation and competitiveness: why does geography matter?

• Localized knowledge spillovers
• Localized knowledge spillovers explain differences in regional economic and

innovative performance (e.g. Jaffe et al. 1993; Audretsch and Feldman 1996)

• Co-location facilitates the creation of linkages, interactions and face-to-face

contacts necessary for the transmission of knowledge characterized by a strong tacit component (Boschma, 2005)

• Sources of knowledge spillovers:
• Universities
• Public research organizations
• Other firms:
• Proximity to customers and suppliers facilitates knowledge flows about

which new products have the greatest market potential

• Local labor mobility among firms that operate in related industries

Massimiliano Guerini

Regions, innovation and competitiveness: why does geography matter?

• A different stream of scientific literature has emphasized that

geography also plays a fundamental role in the provision of finance

• SMEs and start-ups generally find it difficult to get adequate external finance
• information asymmetries generate severe adverse selection and

moral hazard problems (Carpenter an Petersen, 2002; Denis, 2004)

• Investors that are localized in physical proximity of candidate investment

targets enjoy an advantage in overcoming information asymmetry barriers (e.g. Sorensen and Stuart, 2001; Guiso et al., 2004)

• Opportunity to acquire soft information, develop long-term

relationship banking practices with borrowers, better monitoring

Massimiliano Guerini

Open issues

• How does the presence of local sources of external knowledge contribute to

the growth performance of European start-ups and SMEs?

• How does geography influence the ability of start-ups and SMEs to

absorb different types (scientific and practical) of external knowledge?

• T
• what extent large established firms can act as gate keepers,

indirectly channeling (scientific) knowledge to start-ups and SMEs?

• Which characteristics of the local financial system enable this process?
• Which type of financial actors – business angels, venture capitalists,

private equity investors, and commercial banks, are most helpful in this regard?

Massimiliano Guerini

Possible areas of investigation

• We aim at understanding:
• Whether and how start-ups and SMEs can benefit from the local availability of

scientific knowledge developed by universities and PROs

• The effect on start-ups and SMEs performance of both vertical and horizontal

local linkages with leading innovative firms located in the same territory

• To what extent the characteristics of the local financial system amplifies the

advantages of being located in regions endowed with a greater amount of sources of local knowledge, either practical or scientific

• We also aim at identifying the factors that can reduce the role of geography for the

exploitation of knowledge spillovers:

• Collaborations with large multinational firms (e.g., in EU funded R&D projects)

Massimiliano Guerini

RISIS infrastructure

• VICO: data on the provision of equity capital to start-ups from business angels and venture

capitalists

• Start-ups
• VC investors
• New dataset FGMF: data on the population, characteristics and location of European fast growing

mid-sized firms Other relevant dataset of the RISIS infrastructure:

• ETER and Leiden university ranking: data on universities producing knowledge in the relevant

scientific fields in which SMEs and start-ups are specialized

• CIB: data on the innovative output of private research labs of large innovative firms (CIB)
• EUPRO: data on the network of collaborations between large firms, SMEs, start-ups and

universities and other research organizations in the context of EU funded R&D projects (EUPRO)

Massimiliano Guerini

Connection to WP9

• Harmonization of geographical information across different

RISIS infrastructures

• Definition of the relevant unit of analysis
• Functional Urban Areas as a starting point
• Partial application of the UPEMLV method
• Identification of initial clusters of:
• VC-backed start-ups
• VC investors
• FGMFs