This paper examines how Sweden and the United States have been impacted by philanthropicactivities, commercialization of university-based knowledge and internationalentrepreneurship. The analysis comprises a detailed case study of Swedish and U.S.universities, as well as a statistical analysis of the impact of philanthropy on economicgrowth. The results show that the United States has prompted a university system based oncompetition and variety, with an emphasis on philanthropy, promoting knowledge creation.International entrepreneurship has been an important mechanism by which this knowledge isglobalized leading to increased economic growth. Conversely, Swedish universities werecharacterized by less commercialized R&D and weak links to the commercial sector, rootedtraditionally in dependence on tax-financed and homogenous university structure. TheSwedish model has begun to change with important implications for development in smallerdomestic markets. The analysis has important implications for knowledge creation as asource of economic growth through international entrepreneurship taking advantage ofglobalization, especially for smaller countries.

In this paper we suggest that the spillover of knowledge may not occur automatically as typically assumed in models of endogenous growth. Rather, a mechanism is required to serve as a conduit for the spillover and commercialization of knowledge from the source creating it, to the firms actually commercializing the new ideas. In this paper, entrepreneurship is identified as one such mechanism facilitating the spillover of knowledge. Using a panel of entrepreneurship data from 18 countries, we provide empirical evidence that, in addition to measures of Research & Development and human capital, entrepreneurial activity also serves to promote economic growth.

Purpose – Schumpeter claimed the entrepreneur to be instrumental for creative destruction and industrial dynamics. Entrepreneurial entry serves to transform and revitalize industries, thereby enhancing their competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if entry of new firms influences productivity amongst incumbent firms, and the extent to which altered productivity can be attributed sector and time specific effects.

Design/methodology/approach – Implementing a unique dataset the paper estimates a firm-level production function in which the productivity of incumbent firms is modeled as a function of firm attributes and regional entrepreneurship activity.

Findings – The analysis finds support for positive productivity effects of entrepreneurship on incumbent firms, albeit the effect varies over time, what the authors refer to as a “delayed entry effect”. An immediate negative influence on productivity is followed by a positive effect several years after the initial entry. Moreover, the productivity of incumbent firms in services sectors appears to be more responsive to regional entrepreneurship, as compared to the productivity of manufacturing firms.

Originality/value – The paper employs a firm-level production function approach allowing for time lags of the effect of entrepreneurship. The unique data implemented allow the authors to identify genuinely new ventures as compared to those associated with reorganizations of existing businesses, thereby overcoming much of data deficiencies in previous studies. In addition, data are distributed on Swedish functional labor market regions.

This volume provides an understanding of firms' R&D and innovation strategies and their economy-wide consequences. It is based on the premise that differences in firm-level returns, as well as economy-wide outcomes, may be linked to the heterogeneous ways in which firms organize and undertake R&D and innovation activities. It emphasizes innovation strategies of innovating firms, and reflects that innovation efforts do not represent a uniform type of expenditure. Organized into three parts the volume moves from the micro to the macro-level. This structure highlights the notion that R&D and innovation and growth are two interdependent perspectives. The first of these is micro-oriented and focuses on innovation processes of firms, where R&D activities and other innovation efforts give rise to consequences such as a strengthening of resource bases, growth of sales and employment, patents, new products, increasing productivity and profits, and improved chances of survival. The second perspective comprises economy-wide effects in the form of overall technological change, growth in total factor productivity, and structural change processes, where certain sectors may benefit from new inputs from other sectors while others experience declining markets and reduced output.

This paper develops a framework of innovation dynamics to appreciate observed heterogeneity of firm size distributions, in which dynamics refer to exit and entry of product varieties and variety markets of individual firms. The analysis is based on a model of variety-triplets where every such triplet in the economy is identified by a unique combination of a variety, destination and firm. New variety triplets are introduced by innovating firms in a quasi-temporal setting of monopolistic competition. Ideas for variety-triplets arrive to firms according to a firm-specific and state dependent Poisson process, whereas variety triplets exit according to a destination-specific Poisson process. The empirical analysis employs a detailed firm-level data base which provides information about all variety triplets. Firm size is measured by a firm's number of variety triplets. The empirical results are compatible with the model predictions of (i) a persistent distribution of firm sizes, (ii) frequent events of exit and entry, and (iii) state dependent entry, where a state may be given by each firm's composition of triplets and/or other firm attributes.

This report presents a case study of the role of a large R&D intensive multinational company for a small open economy. The case study examines the role of AstraZeneca in the Swedish economy, i.e. an economy dominated by multinational companies. The purpose of the report is to analyze the interaction of AstraZeneca’s units in Sweden with the rest of the Swedish economy, and the Swedish innovation system in particular. We analyze the company’s role as an employer in the private sector, its transaction links with other Swedish firms and its role for Sweden’s exports. In a second perspective we focus on the company’s role in the Swedish knowledge economy and innovation system. The report analyses the company as a node for knowledge flows in the Swedish economy and innovation system, and its role as an employer of highly educated and skilled workers in Sweden.Our analysis of the Swedish units’ interaction with the rest of the Swedish economy shows that ’traditional’ couplings in the form of transactions with Swedish suppliers are limited. It is instead the company’s position in the ‘knowledge economy’ that makes its presence in Sweden important.

This paper examines innovation among very small firms and provides new insights into both internal and external determinants of patenting. Applying a non-linear panel data approach to about 160,000 observations on manufacturing firms in Sweden for the period 2000-2006, the following facts emerge: (i) in contrast to larger firms, innovation in micro firms with 1-10 employees is not sensitive to variation in internal financial resources, (ii) skilled labour is even more important for innovation among micro firms compared to other firms, (iii) affiliation to a domestically owned multinational enterprise group increases the innovation capacity of small businesses, (iv) small firms' innovation is closely linked to participation in international trade and exports to the G7-countries, and (v) there is no statistically significant evidence that proximity to metropolitan areas, or presence in a specialized cluster, increases the innovativeness of the smallest firm.

This paper focuses on a much cited but seldom measured micro-foundation for agglomerations: inter-firm labor mobility. Labor mobility has been advanced as a vehicle for knowledge flows and labor market efficiency, and is often maintained to be an important source of agglomeration economies. Based on matched employer-employee data, we estimate the influence that spatial employment density has on the probability of inter-firm job-switching, while controlling for ample attributes of each worker and employer. The rate of inter-firm labor mobility varies substantially across regions and we document a systematic and robust positive influence of density on the probability of job switching. The likelihood that such switching is intra-regional is significantly higher if the employees operate in denser regions, verifying that labor mobility (and thus the effects mediated by it) is indeed localized. Higher rates of inter-firm labor mobility appear as a likely mechanism behind the empirically verified productivity advantage of dense regions.

Is a shift in intellectual property rights to universities the key instrument in increasing com-mercialization of publicly funded research? How much can actually be learned from the U.S. system, disregarding the ongoing debate as to whether the U.S. do actually outperform Europe in terms of commercializing university based research? Taking Sweden as a role model I claim that this policy will not work. This allegation stems from the analysis of a unique data-base giving individual university researchers view on participation in commercialization of public research, their commercialization experiences, and the obstacles researchers claim exist to increase academic entrepreneurship. Despite researchers positive attitudes towards engag-ing in commercial activities, the university culture, weak incentive structures and badly man-aged support facilities impede the creation of efficient links to markets. I conclude that meas-ures must be taken at primarily the national level, but also at the university level, to enhance commercialization activities.

Considerable advances, even breakthroughs, have been made during the last decades in our understanding of the relationship between knowledge and growth on one hand, and entrepreneurship and growth on the other. Similarly, more profound insights have also been gained as to how entrepreneurship, innovation and knowledge are interrelated. Yet, a comprehensive understanding is still lacking concerning the interface of all of those variables: knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship and growth. The link between the micro-economic origin of growth and the macro-economic outcome is still too rudimentary modeled to grasp the full width of these complex and intersecting forces. The main objective of this paper is hence to shed light on recent advances in our understanding of the forces that underpin the creation of knowledge, its diffusion and commercialization through innovation, and the role of the entrepreneur in the growth process. The policy implications of recent research findings conclude this survey. Particularly important policy implications refer to the design of regulation influencing knowledge production, ownership, entry barriers, labor mobility and (inefficient) financial markets. They all have implication for the efficient diffusion of knowledge through entry. Knowledge creation has to be matched by incentives that induce mechanisms to convert knowledge into societal and useful needs.

Knowledge plays a critical role in economic development, still our understanding of how knowledge is created, diffused and converted into growth, is fragmented and partial. The neoclassical growth models disregarded the entrepreneur and viewed knowledge as an exogenous factor. Contemporary current knowledge-based growth models have re-introduced the notion of the entrepreneur, however stripped of its most typical characteristics, and the diffusion of knowledge is kept exogenous. It implies that the predictions and policy conclusions derived from these models may be flawed. This paper reviews the literature that addresses the issues of knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion and growth, and the role attributed the entrepreneur in such dynamic processes. I will explore how these insights can be integrated into existing growth models and suggest a more thorough microeconomic foundations from which empirically testable hypotheses can be derived.

The issue addressed in this paper concerns the emergence and dynamics of a regional cluster inthe music industry. Whereas mainstream economic geography models explain agglomeration ofexisting economic activities, an evolutionary approach is necessary to understand the emergenceof genuinely new clusters. Based on an empirical analysis of the major Swedish music cluster, itis shown how cognitive features, the institutional and organizational framework, as well aseconomic incentives, were interlinked in the process of cluster emergence. A multitude of forcesthus coincided in time and space to support the emerging music cluster. A latent knowledge base,language skill and path-dependence all played a significant role. It is also shown how mobile anddensely located agents, displaying a high degree of connectivity, together with external impulsesthrough immigrants, contributed to the dynamics and re-vitalization of the Stockholm musiccluster.

This paper analyzes the impact universities have on regional development and as to whether adifference can be detected between the influence of the old and new universities. To achievethis end a unique dataset on the researchers’ view regarding the universities role in commercialization,distinguishing between new universities (established around 1970) and old universities(established in the 15th and 17th century), is initially utilized. In the subsequent stagespatially disaggregated data is implemented in a two-step Heckman regression analysis to examinewhether a relationship exists between the universities research specialization and regionalproduction specialization 1975 to 1999. The results reveal that there are considerabledifferences across universities, albeit primarily unrelated to the age of the universities. Finally,the impact of universities on regional productivity in knowledge-based industries is examined.

This paper analyzes whether there is a correspondence between a university’s research spe-cialization and industrial specialization in the region hosting the university, and to what extent universities influences regional productivity. Moreover, the analysis seeks to answer if a dif-ference can be detected between the influences of old and new universities on regional per-formance. To achieve this end we utilize a unique dataset on spatially disaggregated data for Sweden in the period 1975-1999. A two-step Heckman regression analysis is implemented to examine whether the universities research specialization match regional specialization in pro-duction as compared to the average region. The results suggest a correspondence in speciali-zation, as well as positive productivity effects. However, there are also considerable differ-ences across regions, albeit primarily unrelated to the age of the universities.

The main issue addressed in this paper concerns the relationship between firms' endowments in intangible proprietary assets and their export performance. The impact of investments in foreign production capacity on exports is taken into account in the empirical analysis.

Contemporary theories of entrepreneurship generally focus on the recognition of opportunities and the decision to exploit them. While the prevailing view in the entrepreneurship literature is that opportunities are exogenous, the most prevalent theory of economic growth suggests that opportunities are endogenous. This paper bridges the gap between the entrepreneurship and economic growth literatures by developing a knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Knowledge created endogenously results in knowledge spillovers that give rise to opportunities to be identified and exploited by entrepreneurs.

Schumpeter claimed the entrepreneur to be instrumental for creative destruction and industrial dynamics. Entrepreneurial entry serves to transform and revitalize industries, thereby enhancing their competiveness. This paper investigates if entry of new firms influences productivity amongst incumbent firms, and the extent to which altered productivity can be attributed sector and time specific effects. Implementing a unique dataset we estimate a firm-level production function in which the productivity of incumbent firms is modeled as a function of firm attributes and regional entrepreneurship activity. The analysis finds support for positive productivity effects of entrepreneurship on incumbent firms, albeit the effect varies over time, what we refer to as a delayed entry effect. An immediate negative influence on productivity is followed by a positive effect several years after the initial entry. Moreover, the productivity of incumbent firms in services sectors appears to be more responsive to regional entrepreneurship, as compared to the productivity of manufacturing firms.

The extent and importance of spin-offs for industrial dynamics have been analysed in a number of previous studies, yet knowledge is surprisingly scarce about the determinants that trigger such entrepreneurial ventures. In the current analysis we use unique and detailed Swedish data to comprehensively explore how individual, firm, regional, and industry variables influence spin-offs during 1999-2005. In addition to the expected general positive impact of regional size and entrepreneurial culture, we find specific features for knowledge intensive manufacturing and service production on the propensity of employees to spin off a new venture. Moreover, we use an entropy measure to disentangle unrelated and related variety, and find that the former has a significantly negative impact while the latter a significantly positive effect on the propensity of the individual to start a spin-off.

This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to relocate itsbusiness unit and/or corporate HQ overseas. We argue that business unit HQs move overseasin response to changes in the internal configuration of their unit’s activities and the demandsof the product markets in which they operate, whereas corporate HQs move overseas isresponse to the demands of external stakeholders, in particular global financial markets andshareholders. Using data on 125 business unit HQs and 35 corporate HQs, we test and findsupport for these arguments. The research highlights important differences betweencorporate- and business-level strategy, and it suggests ways in which the theory of the MNCneeds to be reconsidered.

The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the importance of the structure of agglomeration on productivity and growth. To accomplish this we will include the degree of co-agglomeration of similar industries as an explanatory variable in the empirical analysis, while simultaneously controlling for the degree of industry-specific agglomeration. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of co-agglomerated industries on productivity has not previously been investigated. The empirical analysis confirms a positive statistical relationship between interdependent and co-located industries on labour productivity.

The U.S. is traditionally viewed as an economy driven by entrepreneurs, whereas the Swedish model is associated with high welfare ambitions and less focus on entrepreneurial activities. This paper seeks to empirically investigate whether the connection between entrepreneurship and growth at the regional level differs between the U.S. and Sweden. By regressing annual entrepreneurship on regional employment growth (and controlling for other conceivable variables impacting employment growth) entrepreneurship is shown to be positively and significantly associated with regional growth in both countries in the 1990s. Still, the result is more robust for the U.S. Other important variables for regional growth is business density and, in the case of the U.S., educational levels and internal scale economies.

This paper explores the relationship between knowledge creation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth in the United States over the last 150 years. According to the “new growth theory,” investments in knowledge and human capital generate economic growth via spillovers of knowledge. But the theory does not explain how or why spillovers occur, or why large investments in R&D do not always result in economic growth. What is missing is “the knowledge filter” - the distinction between general knowledge and economically useful knowledge. Also missing is a mechanism (such as entrepreneurship) converting economically relevant knowledge into economic activity. This paper shows that the unprecedented increase in R&D spending in the United States during and after World War II was converted into economic activity via incumbent firms in the early postwar period and increasingly via new ventures in the last few decades.

Alla i Sverige säger sig vilja stärka innovationspolitiken. Regeringen presenterar en nationell innovationsstrategi, Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA) driver ett stort innovationsprojekt och Socialdemokraterna vill inrätta en ”nationell innovationsberedning”. Vi fruktar dock att innovationspolitiken blir alltför fragmentarisk med ett ensidigt fokus på stöd till FoU för högteknologiska produkter. Vi förespråkar, utifrån ett evolutionärt schumpeterianskt synsätt, istället en bredare ansats. Uppgiften är att skapa långsiktiga förutsättningar för att göra svensk ekonomi som helhet mer innovativ och kreativ. Då krävs ett skatte- och regelsystem som stimulerar kunskapsuppbyggnad och kunskapsspridning i alla sektorer. Vi föreslår tio åtgärder som tillsammans bildar ett ”ramverk” för en sådan innovationspolitik.

This paper investigates the role of the 30 largest firms in the respective Nordic country and in Estonia over the last decade and for some variables between 1975 to 2006. The analysis confirms that the largest firms play a critically important role for industrial dynamics in the Nordic countries. Statistics are presented with regard to e.g. ownership, the distribution of employment between home country and foreign units, internationalization, R&D, the share of overall employment and value-added, and the dynamics over time. Both firms in the manufacturing and the service sectors are included. Even though large firms differ in terms of size and industry distribution, they do still play a dominant in all Nordic countries, albeit somewhat diminished over the investigated time period. From a policy point of view it seems of vital concern for the Nordic countries to retain their increasingly foot-loose and globally oriented large firms.

This article describes the academic contributions of the 2010 recipient of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, Professor Josh Lerner of the Harvard Business School. Lerner’s empirical research on the inter-relationship between venture capital, innovation and entrepreneurship has greatly extended and improved our understanding of one of the major drivers of growth in modern economies. The first part of this article explains Lerner’s contributions as regards the structure and organization of the venture capital industry. Later, his most important publications on entrepreneurship, innovation and intellectual property rights are surveyed. Several aspects of Lerner’s policy-oriented work are then outlined, before the article closes with a brief conclusion.