Survival, Growth, and Interfirm Collaboration of Start-Up Companies in High Technology Industries: A Case Study of Upper Bavaria

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent, nonprofit limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) supported by the Deutsche Post AG. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. The current research program deals with (1) mobility and flexibility of labor markets, (2) internationalization of labor markets and European integration, (3) the welfare state and labor markets, (4) labor markets in transition, (5) the future of work, (6) project evaluation and (7) general labor economics. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. Our analysis of the survival of firms leads to the important result that the hypotheses about differences between various industries in the life duration of new firms and about the importance of the region of location for the probability of survival are confirmed. Many more enterprises are founded in the service sector than in manufacturing, but also many more of these start-ups die.The probable life duration in agglomeration areas is in total greater than in rural areas. The analysis of the determinants of the hazard rates of firms confirmed the additional hypothesis that a larger number of employees at the time of foundation and the legal form of the limited company reduce the risk of exit. The growth of employment in firms interviewed by us shows a similar sectoral and regional differentiation as the life duration. The survey found that sectors with a greater proportion of cooperating firms have a greater growth rate. The innovation activities however do hardly differ between the analysed high-tech industries. Cooperation between start-up firms can be interpreted as a kind of mutual assistence which results predominantly from personal contacts. The personal networks which developed from the environment of the entre...