Based on detailed information about the regional knowledge base, particularly about universities, we find that regional public research and education have a strong positive impact on new business formation in innovative industries but not in industries classified as non-innovative. Measures for...

We investigate the role played by different fields of academic knowledge and various types of higher education institutions in the emergence of innovative start-ups in a region. We show that education and research in the applied and natural sciences have the strongest effect on the emergence of...

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge about the effect of new business formation on regional development. After a brief sketch of the origins of research on this issue, the main results of different lines of inquiry are discussed. Main issues are the development of start-up cohorts,...

We investigate whether the supply of venture capital (VC) is driven by spatial proximity between a VC company and the portfolio firm. Our analysis is based on information about VC investments in Germany between 2004 and 2009. We find that possible problems caused by the geographic distance to a...

This article discusses the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems. In particular, three propositions are made for further development of the concept. First, it is argued that entrepreneurial ecosystems should be regarded a part of the regional innovation system. Second, the scope of the concept...

We propose an extension of the standard occupational choice model to analyze the life satisfaction of senior entrepreneurs as compared to paid employees and particularly retirees in Germany. The analysis identifies income and health status as main factors that shape the relationship between...

We investigate the relationship between cultural creativity and entrepreneurship in two respects: first, cultural and personal creativity as a characteristic of self-employed individuals; second, selfemployment in professions that can be classified as belonging to the "Creative Class" as...

Based on representative data, the German Micro-Census, we provide an overview of the development of self-employment and entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2011, the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socio-economic background of these individuals, their...

We investigate whether people become more willingly self-employed during boom periods or in recessions and to what extent it is the business cycle or the employment status influencing entry rates into entrepreneurship. Our analysis for Germany reveals that start-up activities are positively...

It has been argued that creativity is an important source of regional growth. This paper investigates the geography of people in creative occupation in Germany. The population share of the creative class as well as of bohemians and artists is relatively high in larger cities, but smaller places...