Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The creation of cleantech startups at the local level: the role of knowledge availability and environmental awareness

  • Published:
Small Business Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we explore which local factors affect the creation of cleantech startups in a geographical area. Specifically, we note that these startups combine innovation and attention to the environment. Thus, we consider two primary sets of local factors: the availability of scientific and technological knowledge and the environmental awareness of local governments and communities as the main drivers of the creation of cleantech startups. Using a dataset of 393 cleantech startups created between 2012 and 2014 and extracted from the Italian official database of innovative startups, we estimate negative binomial regressions whose dependent variable is the number of cleantech startups created in each of the 110 Italian provinces. The results highlight that both the local availability of scientific and technological knowledge and the local environmental awareness are crucial determinants of cleantech entrepreneurship in a geographical area. We discuss the implications of these results for policymakers who intend to stimulate this type of entrepreneurship.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We also consider that the creation of cleantech startups at the local level positively responds to favorable economic conditions. For instance, Eyraud et al. (2013) find that investments in the cleantech industry positively relate to economic growth, low interest rates in the financial markets, and high oil prices.

  2. See the bottom of Table 5 in Section 5 for the chi-squared statistics of the likelihood ratio tests on over-dispersion parameters.

  3. http://www.infocamere.it.

  4. Moreover, the firm must meet (at least) one of the following additional requirements: R&D expenses to sales ratio must be greater than 15%, at least one third of the total workforce must possess a PhD or must have worked for at least 3 years in a research institute (or at least two thirds of the total workforce must possess an MSc degree) and the firm must be the holder or the licensee of (at least) one patent or intellectual right.

  5. Interestingly, 65 cleantech startups in our sample (16.5%) are university spin-offs (source: http://netval.it). In unreported estimates, we replicated the analysis when excluding these spin-offs from the sample. Results (available from the authors upon request) are substantially similar to those presented in Section 5.

  6. http://www.legambiente.it. See also Legambiente (2012).

  7. http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/covenant-mayors/sustainable-energy-action-plans.

  8. We thank one of the two anonymous reviewers for having raised this important point.

  9. For details, please see http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:Knowledge-intensive_services (KIS) and http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:High-tech_classification_of_manufacturing_industries.

  10. The average marginal effect is the increase in Startups due to a one unit increase in the variable of interest. As all continuous regression variables have been standardized, one unit increase corresponds to an increase of one standard deviation. It is worth noting that the coefficients reported in Table 5 cannot be interpreted as marginal effects, given the non-linear nature of the negative binomial model.

  11. As mentioned in footnote 5, we repeated the analysis by excluding university spin-offs from the sample. We continue to detect a positive effect of Technical university on the local creation of cleantech startups. This result is in accordance with the theory that technical universities producing high-quality knowledge generate spillover effects that are captured by incorporating a cleantech startup.

  12. In an additional robustness check, we included among the covariates the number of universities in the focal province. The coefficient of this additional variable is not significant, while results remain substantially unchanged. Interestingly, Technical university is still positive and significant at 10%.

References

  • Acs, Z. J., & Plummer, L. A. (2005). Penetrating the ‘knowledge filter’ in regional economies. Annals of Regional Science, 39(3), 439–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acs, Z. J., Braunerhjelm, P., Audretsch, D. B., & Carlsson, B. (2009). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 32(1), 15–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anselin, L., Varga, A., & Acs, Z. J. (1997). Local geographic spillovers between university research and high technology innovations. Journal of Urban Economics, 42(3), 422–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armington, C., & Acs, Z. J. (2002). The determinants of regional variation in new firm formation. Regional Studies, 36(1), 33–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Audretsch, D. B., & Lehmann, E. E. (2005). Does the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship hold for regions? Research Policy, 34(8), 1191–1202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bae, J., & Koo, J. (2008). The nature of local knowledge and firm formation. Industrial and Corporate Change, 18(3), 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baptista, R., & Mendonça, J. (2010). Proximity to knowledge sources and the location of knowledge-based startups. Annals of Regional Science, 45(1), 5–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumol, W. J., & Oates, W. E. (1988). The theory of environmental policy. Cambridge University Press.

  • Belsley, D. A., Edwin, K., & Welsch, R. E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: identifying influential data and sources of collinearity. John Wiley & Sons.

  • Bjornali, E. K., & Ellingsen, A. (2014). Factors affecting the development of clean-tech startups: a literature review. Energy Procedia, 58, 43–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonaccorsi, A., Colombo, M. G., Guerini, M., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2013). University specialization and new firm creation across industries. Small Business Economics, 41(4), 837–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonzanini, D., Giudici, G., & Patrucco, A. (2016). The crowdfunding of renewable energy projects in: Ramiah, V., Gregoriou, G. (eds.) Handbook of environmental and sustainable finance, Elsevier.

  • Borghesi, S., Cainelli, G., & Mazzanti, M. (2015). Linking emission trading to environmental innovation: evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry. Research Policy, 44(3), 669–683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, C. M. (2011). Early stage financing of clean technology industries: does private equity backing matter? Journal of Private Equity, 14(4), 73–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bürer, M. J., & Wüstenhagen, R. (2009). Which renewable energy policy is a venture capitalist’s best friend? Empirical evidence from a survey of international cleantech investors. Energy Policy, 37(12), 4997–5006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burtis, P., Epstein, R., & Hwang, R. (2004). Creating the California Cleantech Cluster, NRDC.

  • Cainelli, G., D’Amato, A., & Mazzanti, M. (2015). Adoption of waste-reducing technology in manufacturing: regional factors and policy issues. Resource and Energy Economics, 39(February), 53–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carraro, C., & Siniscalco, D. (1992). International coordination of environmental policies: the international dimension of environmental policy. European Economic Review, 36(2–3), 379–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carree, M. A., Santarelli, E., & Verheul, I. (2008). Firm entry and exit in Italian provinces and the relationship with unemployment. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 4(2), 171–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, B., & Winn, M. I. (2007). Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1), 29–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colombelli, A. (2016). The impact of local knowledge bases on the creation of innovative startups in Italy. Small Business Economics, 47(2), 383–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Criscuolo, C., & Menon, C. (2015). Environmental policies and risk finance in the green sector: cross-country evidence. Energy Policy, 83(August), 38–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming, D., Henriques, I., & Sadorsky, P. (2016). ‘Cleantech’ venture capital around the world. International Review of Financial Analysis, 44(March), 86–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dean, T., & McMullen, J. (2007). Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1), 50–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doganova, L., & Karnøe, P. (2015). Building markets for clean technologies: controversies, environmental concerns and economic worth. Industrial Marketing Management, 44(1), 22–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EEA (2014). Resource-efficient green economy and EU policies, EEA Report no. 2.

  • European Digital Forum (2016). The 2016 Startup Nation Scoreboard. Policy brief. Available at: http://www.europeandigitalforum.eu.

  • Eyraud, L., Clements, B., & Wane, A. (2013). Green investment: trends and determinants. Energy Policy, 60(September), 852–865.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritsch, M., & Aamoucke, R. (2013). Regional public research, higher education, and innovative startups: an empirical investigation. Small Business Economics, 41(4), 865–885.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Georgeson, L., Caprotti, F., & Bailey, I. (2014). It’s all a question of business’: investment identities, networks and decision-making in the cleantech economy. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 96(3), 217–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghio, N., Guerini, M., Lehmann, E. E., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2015). The emergence of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 44(1), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghio, N., Guerini, M., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2016). University knowledge and the creation of innovative startups: an analysis of the Italian case. Small Business Economics, 47(2), 293–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giudici, G., Guerini, M., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2017). Reward-based crowdfunding of entrepreneurial projects: the effect of local altruism and localized social capital on proponents’ success. Small Business Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9830-x.

  • Giudici, G., & Roosenboom, P.G.J. (2004). Venture capital and new stock markets in Europe. Advances in Financial Economics, 10, 1–24.

  • Glaeser, E. L., & Kerr, W. R. (2009). Local industrial conditions and entrepreneurship: how much of the spatial distribution can we explain? Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 18(3), 623–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, W. H. (2003). Econometric analysis. New York: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, T. (2014). Juggling with proximity and distance: collaborative innovation projects in the Danish cleantech industry. Economic Geography, 90(4), 75–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horta, H., Meoli, M., & Vismara, S. (2016). Skilled unemployment and the creation of academic spin-offs: a recession-push hypothesis. Journal of Technology Transfer, 41(4), 798–817.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. (1969). The economy of cities. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe, A. B., Newell, R. G., & Stavins, R. N. (2005). A tale of two market failures: technology and environmental policy. Ecological Economics, 54(2–3), 164–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapsalyamova, Z., Mezhera, T., Al Hosanya, N., & Tsaia, I. (2014). Are low carbon cities attractive to cleantech firms? Empirical evidence from a survey. Sustainable Cities and. Society, 13(October), 125–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Legambiente (2012). Ecosistema Urbano XIX edizione. Available at: http://www.legambiente.it/contenuti/dossier/ecosistema-urbano-xix-edizione.

  • Meek, W. R., Pacheco, D. F., & York, G. J. (2010). The impact of social norms on entrepreneurial action: evidence from the environmental entrepreneurship context. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(5), 493–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyskens, M., & Carsrud, A. L. (2013). Nascent green-technology ventures: a study assessing the role of partnership diversity in firm success. Small Business Economics, 40(3), 739–759.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miao, Q., & Popp, D. (2014). Necessity as the mother of invention: innovative responses to natural disasters. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 68(2), 280–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2015). Climate change mitigation: policies and progress. Paris: OECD Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Parrish, B. D. (2010). Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship: principles of organization design. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(5), 510–523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pernick, R., & Wilder, C. (2007). The clean tech revolution: the next big growth and investment opportunity, Collins.

  • Reardon, M., & Weber, R. (2014). Green & blue: documenting the contribution of Waterfront Eco-Districts to Stockholm's Green Profile, Waterfront Eco-Districts for the ‘50th ISOCARP Congress 2014′.

  • Sine, W. D., & Lee, B. H. (2009). Tilting at windmills? The environmental movement and the emergence of the U.S. wind energy sector. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(1), 123–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steinz, H., Van Rijnsoever, F. J., & Nauta, F. (2016). How to green the red dragon: a startups’ little helper for sustainable development in China. Business Strategy and the Environment, 25(8), 593–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Ploeg, F., & Bovenberg, A. L. (1994). Environmental policy, public goods and the marginal cost of public funds. The Economic Journal, 104(423), 444–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, L., Shen, J., Marinova, D., Guo, X., Sun, F., & Zhu, F. (2013). Changes of public environmental awareness in response to the Taihu blue-green algae bloom incident in China. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15(5), 1281–1302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • York, J. G., & Lenox, M. J. (2014). Exploring the sociocultural determinants of de novo versus de alio entry in emerging industries. Strategic Management Journal, 35(13), 1930–1951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, M. A., & Zeitz, G. J. (2002). Beyond survival: achieving new venture growth by building legitimacy. Academy of Management Review, 27(3), 414–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Politecnico di Milano School of Management, Via Lambruschini 4, 20156, Milan, Italy

    Giancarlo Giudici, Massimiliano Guerini & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra

Authors
  1. Giancarlo Giudici
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Massimiliano Guerini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cristina Rossi-Lamastra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristina Rossi-Lamastra.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 6 List of environmental disasters due to human activity in the period 1976–2012 in Italy
Full size table
Table 7 Variance inflation factor
Full size table
Table 8 Instrumental variable regression
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Giudici, G., Guerini, M. & Rossi-Lamastra, C. The creation of cleantech startups at the local level: the role of knowledge availability and environmental awareness. Small Bus Econ 52, 815–830 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9936-9

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9936-9

Keywords

JEL classification

Search

Navigation