<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The main aim of the paper is to investigate the determinants of university-industry links, considering the number of contracts with industry as an output variable. Also, the spatial dimension of contracts is examined, explaining to what extent U-I cooperation is anchored regionally or nationally.</p><p><strong>Methodology/Approach:</strong> The paper uses a unique dataset comprising 1,158 contracts with industry at the 25 faculties belonging to five technical universities in Slovakia. Negative binomial regression analysis is used to evaluate the determinants for academic engagement in contract research.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> Empirical findings reveal the impact of the factors such as age, personnel structure, the intensity of supervising and experience in research projects financed by public authorities, mattering more than patenting or teaching intensity in the propensity of researchers to engage with industry.</p><p><strong>Research Limitation/implication:</strong> The outcomes only concern technical universities in Slovakia, and there is still room for analysis of other faculties comprising other subject areas. Since there is no longer time series data, the 2014-2016 timeframe did not permit to explore additional contexts in the model.</p><strong>Originality/Value of paper:</strong> Foremost, this is the first attempt to investigate the relationship between different factors and the level of contract research in Slovakia, making several contributions to the existing literature.

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<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> Support policy for start-up companies is being developed nowadays in Slovakia, but so far there has hardly been any research focuses on this issue. Therefore, the aim of this article is to identify, what are the specific needs and funding sources of start-up companies according to their stage of development.<br /><strong>Methodology/Approach:</strong> This paper used questionnaire empirical approach. The research was conducted in the Košice region. The sample of 47 innovative start-up companies was obtained and analysed using statistical measurements such as the Pearson’s chi-square test and the correspondence analysis method. <br /><strong>Findings:</strong> The results reveal that start-up companies at their initial phase of development mostly use bank loans as a funding source of their activities, but they opt also business angel as their source of funding at start phase of development. The findings further discover relation between the stage of the development of start-up company and its specific need. Additionally, research probes that collaboration with other firms or universities has a positive impact on prosperity of the start-up company in terms of higher profitability and better access to funding.<br /><strong>Research limitation/Implication:</strong> The Košice region is not an area, where representative survey in the field of start-up companies can be held nowadays. It relates to small market of innovative and creative solutions and goes with not so developed incentives to support start-up companies in their initial phase of development too. Thus, all the results and the outcomes coming from the dataset can be considered rather <span style="background-color: #f5f6f5;">demonstrational</span> than complex.<br /><strong>Originality/Value of paper:</strong> We show the specific needs and funding sources for start-up companies in the Košice region according to their stage of development and thus identify, which aspects government representatives should pay attention to and what should be taken into consideration when designing policy initiatives oriented towards support of start-up prosperity. Furthermore, we bridge the gap between increased attention to analysis of start-up companies and no effort made to analyse them in the Košice region.</p>

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The Impact of Agglomeration Economies on Employment Growth in the Creative Industries in SlovakiaThe paper explores the impact of agglomeration economies on employment growth in the creative industries in Slovakia between 1998 and 2014. Using a spatial econometric model it has been confi rmed that related variety plays a signifi cant role in employment growth in creative industries, while signifi cance of unrelated variety has not been confi rmed. In other words, the districts specialising in diff erent, but at the same time cognitively and technologically related creative sectors, have achieved higher employment growth in comparison to those specialising either in one selected creative sector, or in unrelated sectors. Moreover, the results indicate that knowledge spillover eff ect in creative industries is confi gured more locally what emphasizes the importance of a local level in the process of knowledge creation and its spillover.Keywords: creative industries, related and unrelated variety, spatial econometrics, spillover eff ect, employment rate JEL Classifi cation: D62, O18, R12 ÚvodKreatívne odvetvia sa v súčasnosti akcentujú najmä z dôvodu prechodu výrobných ekonomík na moderné ekonomiky založené na znalostiach, tvorivosti a kreativite. Kreatívne odvetvia sú považované za kľúčové sektory ekonomického rastu a tvorby pracovných miest. Približne 3,8 % celkovej európskej pracovnej sily pôsobí práve v kreatívnych odvetviach generujúc približne 4,4 % celkového európskeho HDP (Tera, 2014). Koncept kreatívnych odvetví tak poskytuje rozvojový potenciál pre vybudovanie nových oblastí bohatstva a zamestnanosti, ktorý môže byť uchopený a vhodnými nástrojmi rozvinutý. Preto sa v súčasnosti týmto dynamickým a rýchlo rastúcim konceptom zaoberajú viacerí autori zdôrazňujúc najmä úlohu klastrov a aglomeračných úspor v procese ich rozvoja (Florida, 2002; Lazzaretti a kol., 2008;Blahovec a Hudec, 2012;Rehák, 2014; Rumpel a kol., 2010). Viacero výskumov totiž potvrdzuje, že kreativita je charakterizovaná silnou aglomeráciou fi riem. Inými slovami, kreatívne odvetvia nie sú rovnomerne distribuované v priestore, ale majú tendenciu byť koncentrované v určitých oblastiach (Bertacchini a Borrione, 2013). Týmito oblasťami nemusia byť výlučne veľké mestá charakteristické svojou hustotou, diverzitou a toleranciou, ale aj malé mestá môžu mať kreatívny potenciál, ktorý je potrebné pozitívne rozvíjať (Ivaničková, 2011). Preto sa tvorcovia politík snažia implementovať také iniciatívy, ktoré posilňujú aktívnu vzájomnú spoluprácu medzi *1 Slávka Klasová (slavka.klasova@tuke.sk), Iveta Korobaničová (iveta.korobanicova@tuke.sk), Peter Burger (peter.burger@tuke.sk), Technická univerzita v Košiciach, Ekonomická fakulta. Táto práca bola podporovaná Agentúrou na podporu výskumu a vývoja na základe zmluvy č. APVV-0101-10.