Mansfield's Missing Link : The Impact of Knowledge Spillovers on Firm Growth

Early in his career, Edwin Mansfield focused on thedeterminants of the evolutionary process by which firms are created and thengrow. Toward the end of his career, he pioneered research that focused on theexternal sources of research and development, and especially on universities asinputs into firm innovation. This research triggered further work toidentify the role that university spillovers play in generating innovativeactivity. These research trajectories have remained separate. Studies by otherscholars on firm growth do not consider the effect of externalresearch.This analysis links the literature on firm growth with that ofuniversity-based knowledge spillovers.The question is whether access touniversity-based knowledge spillovers impacts firm growth.A model is thenpresented to relate firm characteristics and external knowledge to firm growth.Growth rates of high-technology German firms are then examined. The empirical evidence suggests that firm growth is positively influenced byinvestments in knowledge and that accessing external knowledge generated byuniversities (knowledge spillovers) also contributes to firm growth.(TNM)