Regional entrepreneurship and innovation: historical roots and the impact on the growth of regions
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Regional entrepreneurship and innovation: historical roots and the impact on the growth of regions Alfredo Del Monte & Sara Moccia & Luca Pennacchio
Accepted: 27 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This paper proposes a conceptual framework in which a historical cultural environment based on scientific knowledge and creativity is an important driver of long-term regional entrepreneurship and innovation. These two factors, in turn, foster the growth of regions. This framework is empirically tested in Italy using current and historical data at the NUTS 3 geographical level and applying structural equation modeling to a system of three equations. The empirical evidence supports the conceptual framework and shows that the cultural environment has an indirect effect on regional growth through entrepreneurship and innovation. Historical scientific knowledge, proxied by the presence of universities, and past creativity, proxied by the presence of scientists and inventors in the area, positively affect long-term regional entrepreneurship and innovation. Regions with higher levels of entrepreneurship and innovation grow faster than other regions. Lastly, entrepreneurship plays a crucial role by also strengthening the positive impact of innovation on growth.
A. Del Monte : S. Moccia Department of Economics and Statistics, University Federico II of Naples, Naples, Italy L. Pennacchio (*) Department of Business and Economics, University Parthenope of Naples, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132 Naples, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords Entrepreneurship . Innovation . Economic growth . Scientific knowledge . University . Creativity . Culture JEL classifications L26 . M13 . O10 . O40 . R11 . R12
1 Introduction Innovation is considered a key driver of economic and social progress in the theoretical literature (Baumol 1968; Leibenstein 1968; Soltow 1968). Technological progress, however, cannot be considered in isolation from the milieu in which it occurs. As Schumpeter recognized, the spread of innovation is affected by the diffusion of entrepreneurship: “It is therefore quite wrong … to say … that capitalist enterprise was one, and technological progress a second, distinct factor in the observed development of output; they were essentially one and the same thing or, as we may also put it, the former was the propelling force of the latter” (Schumpeter 1942, p. 110). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship suggests that regional knowledge, innovation, and entrepreneurial opportunities are closely linked (Acs et al. 2009, 2013; Audretsch and Lehmann 2005). New knowledge and ideas that have not previously been commercialized represent the main knowledge base inspiring entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, in turn, give rise to knowledge spillovers through the creation of new businesses (Audretsch and Keilbach 2007). Entrepreneurship is therefore very important in both innovation and economic growth, because it is an
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