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Regional variation of academic spinoffs formation

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Abstract

Using a self-collected longitudinal dataset that comprehends the population of academic spinoffs created in Portugal from 1995 until 2007 we investigate to what extent these firms are geographically clustered and the determinants of their geographical distribution at the time of their formation. We focus on university and agglomeration economies-related mechanisms at the municipality level. Our results show that overall academic spinoffs do not exhibit a tendency to cluster, nevertheless some local clusters do exist. Additionally, our findings show that the presence of university incubators and/or university research parks is the most relevant university-related mechanism, whereas regarding agglomeration economies all seem to be important to explain academic spinoffs distribution across municipalities.

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Notes

  1. If we consider the transition probabilities from 1 year to the next for the entry of spinoffs we observe that the zero outcome has a high probability (84.3 %) of remaining zero, but when the number of spinoffs entry is four or more in a given municipality, then the probability of having four or more spinoffs in that municipality in the next year is as high as 53.3 %. For simplicity we do not present these results, but they are available upon request to the authors. .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Oscarina Conceição & Margarida Fontes

  2. Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal

    Oscarina Conceição

  3. NIPE Research Unit and Department of Economics, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Paula Faria

  4. School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Paula Faria

  5. LNEG—National Laboratory of Energy and Geology, Lisbon, Portugal

    Margarida Fontes

Authors
  1. Oscarina Conceição
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  2. Ana Paula Faria
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  3. Margarida Fontes
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Correspondence to Ana Paula Faria.

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Conceição, O., Faria, A.P. & Fontes, M. Regional variation of academic spinoffs formation. J Technol Transf 42, 654–675 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9508-1

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