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Young firm growth in high-tech sectors: The role of founders’ human capital

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Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze empirically the relation between the human capital of the founding team and the growth of new technology-based firms through the estimates of econometric models. For this purpose, we take advantage of a new data set relating to a sample composed of 391 young Italian firms that operate in high-tech industries in both manufacturing and services. In particular, due to a detailed description of the personal characteristics of firms’ founders, we are able to disentangle the “wealth” and “entrepreneurial ability” effects of human capital. We also investigate the nature of the synergies that eventually arise from the presence within the founding team of complementary industry-specific professional skills.

The support of MIUR 2002 funds is gratefully acknowledged. We are indebted to Mario Calderini, Andrea Fumagalli, Luigi Orsenigo, Enrico Santarelli, Marco Vivarelli and participants in the 2003 EARIE Conference, the 2003 SMS Conference, the 2003 AiIG conference and the 2004 Schumpeterian Society Conference for helpful comments to this and related works. Responsibility for any errors lies solely with the authors. The authors are jointly responsible for the work. However, sections 1 and 2 have been written by Massimo G. Colombo, and the remaining sections by Luca Grilli.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Management, and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, P.za Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Massimo G. Colombo

  2. Politecnico di Milano, Milano

    Luca Grilli

Authors
  1. Massimo G. Colombo
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  2. Luca Grilli
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Str. 3, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Uwe Cantner (Chair for Microeconomics) (Chair for Microeconomics)

  2. CESPRI-Bocconi University, Via Sarfatti 25, 20136, Milan, Italy

    Franco Malerba

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Colombo, M.G., Grilli, L. (2007). Young firm growth in high-tech sectors: The role of founders’ human capital. In: Cantner, U., Malerba, F. (eds) Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-49465-2_5

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