The educational system is perhaps the most important feature for labour market entry. During the last decades huge investments have been made at different levels in this system, the Knowledge lift and a doubling of the number of students in tertiary education are examples, but what are the...

Business angels are a vital source of capital for innovative startup firms. However, even of those startups that have the potential to fulfill angel investors’ expected return on investment, most are rejected during the angel’s investment decision process. Information asymmetry, risk and...

In this paper we conduct a meta-analysis to examine the link between R&D spending and economic growth in the EU and other regions. The results suggest that the growth-enhancing effect of R&D in the EU15 countries does not differ from that in other countries in general, but it is less significant...

In this paper we analyze whether a firm’s return to its R&D stock is affected by seller-buyer interactions. We suggest that firms that are in close contact with their customers will be relatively more sensitive to their customers’ needs, and therefore adjust their R&D activities accordingly....

In the paper we look at the bank lending routines of Swedish banks and their consequences for <p> external financing of start-ups. Results from a questionnaire sent out to start-ups listed in the files of the Swedish interest organization “NyföretagarCentrum” were used. We looked at firms...</p>

Every year there is a substantial turbulence in an economy with respect to new firm formation and business closures. Each year, according to Tillväxtanalys (2009), about 100 000 Swedish employees lose their job due to a business closure. However, the share of firm closures vary substantially...

While the brave new world of digital technology is delivering intensive growth to some companies and individuals, the question remains whether that growth ‘trickles down’ or ‘spills over’ to other sectors of the economy rapidly enough to avoid the massive social disruptions seen in...

For more than three decades, China has managed to combine rapid economic growth with a heavily regulated financial sector. The discrepancy between economic and financial development has raised the question of whether China might be an exception to the so-called finance-growth nexus. This study...

This paper investigates regional start-up rates in the knowledge intensive services and high-tech industries. Integrating insights from economic geography and population ecology into the literature on entrepreneurship, we develop a theoretical framework which captures how both supply- and...

Research surveys of the field of entrepreneurship suggest that the maturation and institutionalization of entrepreneurship as a research field brings about both new opportunities and constraints from established thoughts and practices. In this chapter we explore some commonly applied questions...