“…LEs as focal firms and hubs pursue strong and long-term cooperation links with local SMEs, acting as sources of financing and technology transfer to regional enterprises (Giunta, Nifo, & Scalera, 2012;Pahnke & Welter, 2019;Schröder, 2013). They are also a source of spin-offs, spin-outs, and business group affiliations that may strengthen the growth and performance of local enterprises (Sornn-Friese & Sørensen, 2005;Klepper, 2006;Kalantaridis et al, 2012;Bamiatzi, 2014). These large "block-buster" or scale-up entrepreneurs bring knowledge spillovers by launching corporate accelerator programmes, by mentoring, board membership, and advisory (Colombo et al, 2019;Mason & Brown, 2014).…”