Purpose: This paper analyzes the importance given by venture capital (VC) firms to the different characteristics of the patent portfolio of a young innovative company (YIC). In an attempt to go beyond previous studies, the authors argue that not only is the size of a technological portfolio...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is threefold. It is aimed at identifying: a broad set of entrepreneurial activities; different university entrepreneurial models; and the entrepreneurial best practices of advanced European S&T universities. Design/methodology/approach: The paper has adopted a...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors affecting the growth of companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), the London Stock Exchange market for young and growing companies. Design/methodology/approach – The author investigates post-initial public...

The aim of this paper is to examine whether firms that innovate, experience higher rates of growth than firms that do not. Our analysis is based on different models and econometric methodologies applied to several waves the Community Innovation Surveys (CIS) for French industry, during...

This article analyzes the contribution of high-growth firms (HGFs) to the process of knowledge creation. We articulate a demand-pull innovation framework in which knowledge creation is driven by sales growth, and knowledge stems from creative recombination. Building on the literature on HGFs and...

The paper investigates the patterns of persistence of innovation and of the properties of firms' knowledge base (KB) across a sample of Italian firms in the period 1998-2006. The analysis draws upon a theoretical representation of knowledge as a collective good, stemming from the recombination...

This paper analyzes the emergence of new technology-based sectors at the regional level focusing on nanotechnology, an infant technology whose evolution can be traced on the basis of patent application filings. We employ a methodological framework based on the ‘product-space’ approach, to...

This unique Handbook explores both the economics of the firm and the theory of the firm, two areas which are traditionally treated separately in the literature. On the one hand, the former refers to the structure, organization and boundaries of the firm, while the latter is devoted to the...