Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/88118 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 13-093
Publisher: 
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim
Abstract: 
One way through which knowledge and technology transfer can take place is through the foundation of new firms by former employees of incumbent private firms. In this paper, we examine whether knowledge transferred from the incumbent causally affect employment growth and postentry innovation activities of the new firm. We focus on start-ups for which a new idea (a new product, technology, production process or management concept), which the founder developed during her work as an employee, was essential for setting up the new business. These firms are denoted corporate spinoffs. Using data from German start-ups founded in the period from 2005 to 2008, we apply nearest neighbour propensity score matching. We find that corporate spinoffs outperform other start-ups founded by former employees of incumbent private firms that are not based on an essential idea in terms of post-entry innovation activities. However, we cannot show that corporate spinoffs benefit from the transferred idea in terms of employment growth. We conclude that a transferred idea is primarily an input factor and a stimulus for subsequent post-entry innovation activities of corporate spinoffs.
Subjects: 
knowledge and technology transfer
corporate spinoffs
propensity score matching
KfW/ZEW Start-Up Panel
JEL: 
L26
L25
O31
C21
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
245.01 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.