Attractors of Entrepreneurial Activity: Universities, Regions and Alumni Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Baltzopoulos A. and Broström A. Attractors of entrepreneurial activity: universities, regions and alumni entrepreneurs, Regional Studies. This paper investigates how universities may affect regional entrepreneurship through the localization decisions of entrepreneurial alumni. Empirically, a comprehensive, individual-level data set from Sweden for the period 2003–2005 is employed. The results suggest that even when controlling for their spatial history, individuals have an increased propensity to set up in the region where they studied. This effect is found to substitute for both urbanization economies and localization economies as drivers of regional-level entrepreneurship. Thus, the present analysis provides evidence on how universities affect regional economic development that complements the strong focus on spin-off activities by university researchers in previous studies.

Baltzopoulos A. and Broström A. 创业活动的吸引者：大学、区域以及校友企业家，区域研究。本文考察了大学是如何通过校友企业家的地方决策影响区域公司间关系。本研究是基于瑞士2003-2005年间完整的、个体层面的数据组。研究结果表明，即便对于空间历史进行控制，个体倾向在他们学习的区域进行创业。 这一效应替代了城市经济学以及地方经济作为区域层面公司化的带动因素。因此，当前的分析为大学如何影响区域经济发展提供了相关证据，对之前集中于研究者脱离大学进行创业的研究的强有力补充。

学校公司性 区域影响 地域选择性分析

Baltzopoulos A. et Broström A. Ce qui alimente l'esprit d'entreprise: les universités, les régions et les anciens étudiants, Regional Studies. Cet article examine comment les universités peuvent influer sur l'esprit d'entreprise régional à travers les décisions en matière de localisation des anciens étudiants qui sont entrepreneurs. En pratique, on emploie un ensemble de données global à l'échelon de l'individu en Suède pour la période allant de 2003 à 2005. Les résultats laissent supposer que la propension des individus à créer une entreprise dans la région où ils ont étudié est plus élevée, compte tenu même de leurs horizons géographiques. Il s'avère que cet effet se substitue aux économies en matière d'urbanisation et de localisation en tant que forces motrices de l'esprit d'entreprise régional. Ainsi, la présente analyse fournit des preuves de l'impact des universités sur le développement économique régional qui complètent le centre d'intérêt des études antérieures faites par les chercheurs universitaires, à savoir les activités d'essaimage.

Esprit d'entreprise universitaire Impact régional Analyse du choix d'emplacement

Baltzopoulos A. und Broström A. Anziehende Faktoren für unternehmerische Aktivität: Universitäten, Regionen und akademische Unternehmensgründer, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, wie sich Universitäten im Rahmen der Standortentscheidungen ehemaliger Studenten, die ein Unternehmen gründen, auf das regionale Unternehmertum auswirken können. Hierfür kommt ein umfassender Satz von Daten auf individueller Ebene aus Schweden für den Zeitraum von 2003 bis 2005 auf empirische Weise zum Einsatz. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass Einzelpersonen selbst bei einer Berücksichtigung ihrer räumlichen Geschichte verstärkt dazu neigen, ihr Unternehmen in der Region zu gründen, in der sie studiert haben. Diese Wirkung ersetzt den Ergebnissen zufolge sowohl die Urbanisierungs- als auch die Lokalisierungswirtschaften als Faktoren des Unternehmertums auf Regionalebene. Somit liefert diese Analyse Belege dafür, wie sich Universitäten auf die regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung auswirken, was als Ergänzung zu den Spin-Off-Aktivitäten dient, die stark im Mittelpunkt der früheren Studien von Universitätsforschern standen.

Akademisches Unternehmertum Regionale Auswirkung Analyse der Standortwahl

Baltzopoulos A. y Broström A. Factores que atraen la actividad empresarial: universidades, regiones y empresarios académicos, Regional Studies. En este artículo investigamos cómo pueden influir las universidades en el empresariado regional a través de las decisiones de localización por parte de empresarios académicos. Desde un punto de vista empírico, empleamos un amplio grupo de datos a nivel individual de Suecia para el periodo 2003–2005. Los resultados indican que incluso cuando tenemos en cuenta su historia espacial, los individuos tienen una mayor predisposición a establecerse en la región donde han estudiado. Se observa que este efecto sustituye a las economías de urbanización y localización como impulsores del interés empresarial a nivel regional. Por ende, el presente análisis ofrece evidencias de cómo influyen las universidades en el desarrollo de la economía regional, complementando las actividades de spin-off que son el tema central de los estudios previos llevados a cabo por investigadores universitarios.

Empresariado universitario Impacto regional Análisis de la elección del lugar

Keywords:

• University entrepreneurship
• Regional impact
• Location choice analysis

JEL classifications::

• I23
• L26
• O18
• R30

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful for valuable comments and suggestions from Michael S. Dahl, Michael Fritsch, Tom Petersen, Kathrin Müller and other participants at a workshop in Jena, Germany, October 2009, and the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) conference in Jönköping, Sweden, August 2010, as well as from five anonymous referees.

Notes

Throughout the text, the term ‘university’ is used interchangeably with the term ‘higher education institution’.

The division of Sweden into eighty-one functional regions is based on analysis by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. The following methodology was applied in forming these regions. A municipality qualifies as being ‘independent’ (1) if no more than 20% of its working population is employed outside the municipality; and (2) if no more than 7.5% of its working population commutes to the same destination municipality. All municipalities that fail to meet one or both of these requirements are considered ‘dependent’. ‘Independent’ municipalities form the core of a functional region; ‘dependent’ municipalities are considered part of the functional region whose core represents the target of the majority of their out-commuters.

Relatively large regions are considered suitable for the analysis, given the relatively dispersed locational pattern of higher education institutions (also Hoare and Corver, 2010). This aggregation also has the advantage that it allows a more robust econometric methodology to be applied. As further discussed below, it is desired to compare the results with those of the alternative specific multinomial probit model. With available software, this model can only be estimated for a maximum of twenty different choices. For a very large data set such as that used in this study, it is necessary to reduce the number of choices even further to make estimation feasible.

Note that since the data do not capture individuals' mobility between birth and university studies, the actual percentage of entrepreneurs who study ‘away from home’ (48%) may be inflated. However, as the official statistics from the Swedish Agency for Higher Education report that on average 44% of all students move between regions when starting studies, it is believed that the size of this inflation is relatively small.

In constructing the variable Studied, information is used on the most advanced tertiary education in which the individual has participated. Hence, each individual can only be registered to have studied in at most one region. In constructing the variable Worked, the notion of ‘recent work history’ was operationalized as the five-year period prior to new firm formation.

A specification with the other measure commonly used in the relevant literature (Beaudry and Schiffauerova, 2009), the size of the industry, was also tested without altering the results. For construction of the PS index variable, data from 2005 were used.

All models were also re-estimated using the mixed-logit specification referred to above, establishing that all results hold with the additional controls of age and gender included. These estimates, which show a tendency for female and younger entrepreneurs to favour urban locations, are available from the authors upon request.

When applying this robustness test, it was not possible to include controls for urbanization economies – as factors that vary across locations but not across individuals cannot be included – in the ASMPM. Furthermore, the estimation of the ASMPM is very demanding in terms of computing capacity, and with the massive data used in this study, difficulties were faced in making Model V converge properly. The ASMPM robustness test therefore only applies to the main hypothesis (H1).