Ouverture de ‘Special Issue on Start-Up Ecosystem’

SSRN Electronic Journal

In 2012 the Italian Parliament introduced into Italian law a special section in the Companies Register and a large number of financial incentives to create a favorable environment for the development of 'innovative start-ups' (ISUPs). In this paper we compare ISUPs with other start-ups. In accordance with the eligibility criteria established by law, ISUPs show a striking capacity for innovation apparent in a higher incidence of intangible assets and the longer time it takes to begin selling their products. ISUPs also report higher investment rates and stronger growth in sales and assets, while their financial structures are characterized by higher capitalization and greater availability of liquid assets. Based on propensity score matching, we also highlight some direct effects of the 2012 law on their financial structures, almost exclusively on ISUPs operating in the service sectors: their external funding, either debt or equity, increases more than for other similar firms; a stronger rise in investment rates is specifically associated with a larger upsurge in their capital.

The Italian economic context has witnessed, together with the other EU member states, a relevant growth of the attention towards innovative start-up companies. In the last 15 years there has been an increase in the number of centres for the development and support of innovative start-ups. Such centres (incubators, accelerators, info points, development agencies), created by governmental institutions, private entities and universities, have helped increase the number of start-up companies in Italy and to accelerate and modernise the approach towards the theme of innovation and technology transfer from the research to the market. This paper analyses the data contained in the national companies' register, in particular the section created by Law n. 221/2012, dedicated to innovative start-up companies, in order to find and evaluate the connections between the number and the nature of the innovative businesses established in the past few years, their place of birth, the presence of support structures in their regions of residence and the presence of other variables such as education level, IPR, R&D investments.

2021

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on exploration–exploitation trade-off in the context of new ventures creation, where, particularly at the empirical level, there is a limited understanding of whether and how this trade-off is achieved and how start-ups performances are affected by the way in which they face the exploration–exploitation dilemma.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study approach has been adopted as a methodology to conduct the research. Six Italian innovative start-ups were selected and analyzed through in-depth interviews with founders and data collection to understand whether and how start-ups adopt exploration and exploitation solutions to face critical events in their business lives.FindingsThe most evident result of this study is that start-ups adopt more frequently a temporal separation of exploration and exploitation activities as the preferred mode for balancing learning and innovation tension. They do not seem to exhib...

Proceedings IFKAD: Knowledge Drivers for Resilience and Transformation Distribution IFKAD 2022, 2022

The traditional firms that survived the crisis have understood the necessity and urgency of change in a historical moment in which data on youth unemployment are dramatically rising (OECD, 2021); Truly, it has already been several years since many youngsters and non are becoming entrepreneurs through the launch of a new and innovative entrepreneurial venture, since it could be the only way to counteract the negative effects of a stagnant labor market and to secure their own future (Witt U ., 2016). The phenomenon of start-up companies, in particular, is growing more and more and for this reason it has become interesting for both practitioners and scholars. The high percentage of failure, on the one hand, as well as high possibility of great success on the other, make the phenomenon rather non-linear and complex, therefore interesting to analyze. In this contest, the tools to predict and plan innovative businesses are not enough for start-up founders, while Sharasvathy's logical effectual (2009) as a boost for the success of startups is an approach that could be taken into consideration.

Small Business Economics

GraftonBuilding (3-B2), Via Roentgen, 1-20136 Milan-Italy www.certet.unibocconi.it CERTeT was established at the end of 1995. It focuses on the following research areas: territorial economics (both regional and urban); transportation economics and the analysis of transport infrastructure (railways, highways, airways, waterways); the economics of tourism (the Centre organizes an advanced course on this subject); the evaluation of regional and local policies, paying specific attention to the use of EU structural funds; and the economics and management of water resources, and their role in local development. New Working Paper Series The New Working Paper Series circulates research in progress, policy notes, and discussions on economic issues falling within the competences of CERTeT. We host researchers working in "Regional Science" from inside Bocconi University as well as researchers belonging to the wide relational networks built up by CERTeT in its more than 20 years of activity.

A growing body of literature recognizes increasingly the vital importance of entrepreneurial activity as driving force of the social and economic development and societal wealth. Particularly, a crucial role has been assigned to newborn firms. Among newborn firms, start-ups, in particular, are considered to be one of the most important channels for industrial changing and renewal of the economic system. Start-ups, i.e., have the potentiality to accompany and to support the transition of whole national economies toward progress and border-line knowledge, as well as the industrial transformations of the local areas toward the future directions provided by innovations and high-tech industries. Consistent with this framework, since last decade, European Union (EU) stimulates the Member States to promote entrepreneurial activities by proposing several initiatives directed to support the entrepreneurial paths among an increasing number of individuals (EC, 2003; 2006). These initiatives are mainly intended to involve individuals with an entrepreneurial attitude still latent or with higher potentiality to found a successful start-up. Within the initiatives aimed at supporting the start-ups, one which seems to have an increasingly recognition among policy makers, with an increasing audience of followers and participants, is the proposition of start-up competitions (hereinafter SUCs). Also known as business plan competitions, SUCs could be meant as a selective instrument of entrepreneurship policy aimed at encouraging the starting-up by relying on subjective aspects of self-realization and self-efficacy of the participants, rather than on financial, monetary or fiscal rewards. Furthermore, it is organized not only by public institutions, but often also by private specialized organizations. In so doing, SUCs well suited the ongoing economic requirements of many EU countries. The ideas proposed with these SUCs are more likely to be consistent with the industrial structure and development level of EU countries. Although the increasing diffusion of SUCs, there is a gap in literature about the social and economic advantages provided by these SUCs, as well as about their functioning (Schwartz et al., 2013). Nor a comprehensive and systematic overview of SUCs is currently existent. Whit this in mind, the paper aims at presenting an explorative cross-section analysis of Italian SUCs in order to provide an overview of the chief characteristics of these initiatives and their potential impact on the territorial context. Coherently, the focal goal of this paper is to provide a first evaluation of SUCs for a better understanding of their contribution as entrepreneurship policy instrument aimed at facilitating the entrepreneurial process and, in so doing, to increase both the number of nascent entrepreneurs and the probability of success of such initiatives.

puntOorg International Journal

A number of intricate problems affect the current socio-economic scenarios, which have engaged policy-makers and, above all, entrepreneurs in finding sustainable solutions. Thus, embracing the service system perspective, this work aims at understanding if start-ups have an inner orientation towards sustainability as well as the main element that boost it. To this end, the authors embraced a service ecosystem approach, considering these companies as one of the actors (e.g., employees, customers, incubators, venture capitalists, institutions, etc.) that populate the Italian start-up service ecosystem and which interactions contribute to the ecosystem surviving in the long run. To this end, an empirical and explorative analysis has been conducted to better understand if Italian start-ups are inherently oriented towards sustainability, highlighting the main sustainability drivers that these companies should have since their origin. Although this work represents one of the first attempts to investigate startups' inner disposition towards sustainability, it is somewhat limited by the nature of the analysis, which let to grasp just the economic and social drivers of sustainability. Finally, an agenda for further research has been defined to further advance the achieved results.

The European policies on innovation and research of the past 15 years have focused their funding efforts in favor of the creation of the so-called knowledge-based economy.The local/regional response to such policies however are sometimes irregular and inconsistent, partly because of the inhomogeneous distribution of subjects capable to acknowledge and effectively adopt such innovative directions.This delay in the harmonization of the strategic goals of Universities, SMEs, Investors and Public Bodies has been tackled partly thanks to dedicated governance projects, mostly funded by the EU, and through other initiatives, such as the Innovation Prizes aimed at the selection and tutoring of innovative business ideas. The competition applicant’s data make for a very interesting data base in order to analyze the trends of the innovation market. With the aim to understand which sectors have attracted the larger share of interest in term of studies and testing aimed at the creation of business in Italy in the past 12 years, this paper analyzes the innovative proposals submitted both to the regional selections and the ones selected for the National finals. Regarding the regional contest, the region of Sardinia has been chosen as a test region. The analysis has been carried out in several directions: an historic perspective, a sectorial overview and a geographic analysis.

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