Influence of a seed capital program for supporting high growth firms in Chile

Abstract

<p>The main economic development agency in Chile, CORFO, implemented in 2001 a Seed Capital Program (SCP) to promote the development of high-growth firms. The SCP not only provides financial aid to entrepreneurs but also technical and administrative assistance through the support of incubators. Incubators may be universities incubators (UI) or private firms (NUI). The aim of this paper is to know the performance of beneficiaries according to the assistance of UI or NUI. A total of 238 new firms beneficiaries with the CORFO program were surveyed (84 supported by UI and 154 supported by NUI). Two logistic regression models were used, a first model to assess the probability that a new firm achieves positive sales, and a second model to assess the probability that the new firm reaches a high growth during the first five years from its inception. Overall, mixed results were found. SCP’s beneficiaries supported by either UI and NUI have the same probability of having positive sales when starting their operations. However, five years after started their operations, businesses supported by UI have higher probabilities of achieving high growth than businesses supported by NUI. The results highlight a positive interaction between private entrepreneurs, public agencies and university incubators.<strong></strong></p>

High-tech gazelle firms at various stages of evolution: performance and distinctive features

“…, 2019; Goswami et al. , 2019; Cancino et al. , 2018), authors consider groups of features that can increase the predicting probability of gazelle growth: size and age of firm; finance features; management features; communication, cooperation, innovative activity; orientation to foreign markets and interactions; and sector and location area.…”

“…with the studies that analyze the distinctive characteristics of gazelles at the level of individual countries (Gonz alez-Uribe and Reyes, 2021; Coad and Srhoj, 2020;Cancino et al, 2018;Megaravalli, 2017;Goedhuys and Sleuwaegen, 2009). However, only studies are devoted to the analyzes of GFs in high-tech industries (see more in literature section).…”

“…Several studies are dedicated of examining their distinctive features. In several studies (Gonz alez-Uribe and Reyes, 2021;Korsakien_ e et al, 2019;Goswami et al, 2019;Cancino et al, 2018), authors consider groups of features that can increase the predicting probability of gazelle growth: size and age of firm; finance features; management features; communication, cooperation, innovative activity; orientation to foreign markets and interactions; and sector and location area. From other size, some studies analyze the processes of generating GFs for various countries and territories (Goswami et al, 2019;OECD, 2008), as well as for various industries (Ferreira, 2016;Br€ annback et al, 2010;Halabisky et al, 2006;Daunfeldt et al, 2015).…”

“…The research is motivated by several comprehensive studies that analyze a wide range of characteristics of firms in a large sample of countries (for example, Goswami et al. , 2019) and with the studies that analyze the distinctive characteristics of gazelles at the level of individual countries (González-Uribe and Reyes, 2021; Coad and Srhoj, 2020; Cancino et al. , 2018; Megaravalli, 2017; Goedhuys and Sleuwaegen, 2009).…”