Based on theoretical considerations about the 'third mission' of universities and the discussion of different types of university-industry relations, we conclude that the entrepreneurial university is a manifold institution with direct mechanisms to support the transfer of technology from academia to industry as well as indirect mechanisms in support of new business activities via entrepreneurship education. While existing literature usually deals with one or another linking mechanism separately, our central hypothesis is that direct and indirect mechanisms should be interrelated and mutually complementary. We emphasise the importance of a more holistic view of the entrepreneurial university and empirically investigate the scope and interrelatedness of direct technology transfer mechanisms and indirect mechanisms, such as entrepreneurship education at German universities. We find a variety of activities in both fields and most universities' technology transfer facilities and the providers of entrepreneurship education cooperate in support of innovative start-ups.

Public innovation subsidies in a regional environment are expected to unfold a positive economic impact over time. The focus of this paper is an assessment of the long-run impact of innovation and innovation subsidies in German regions. We scrutinize this by an estimation approach combining panel model and time series characteristics and using regional data for the years 1980 to 2014. The results show that innovation and innovation subsidies in the long run have a positive impact on the economic development of regions in Germany. This supports a long-term strategy for regional and innovation policy.

No abstract

Early access to technological knowledge embodied in an industry's innovation network can prove an important competitive advantage for firms. Surprisingly, not much is known about the determinants of their initial entry into such networks. We analyze the propensity of firms for entering the industry's innovation network and their timing in doing so. More precisely, we seek to shed some light on the factors affecting the length of the time-span between a firm's founding and its first cooperation event. We apply a unique longitudinal event history dataset based on the full population of German laser source manufacturers. Innovation network data stem from official databases providing detailed information on the organizations involved, the subject of joint research and development (R&D) efforts, as well as the start and end times of all publicly funded R&D projects between 1990 and 2010. Estimation results from an event history estimation model indicate that micro firms enter the network later than small or large firms. An in-depth analysis of the size effects for medium-sized firms provides some unexpected but highly interesting findings. The choice of cooperation type makes no significant difference to a firm's timing in entering the network. Finally, the analysis of geographical determinants shows that cluster membership can, but does not necessarily affect the timing of a firm's decision to cooperate.