The city of start‐ups: Location determinants of start‐ups in emergent industries in Barcelona

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have highlighted the role of cities as incubators for start‐ups. Several studies identify the city of Barcelona as one of the major hubs in Europe for start‐up creation, especially in emergent industries. The present paper examines how local attributes, proximity to the elements of an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE), and to nearby economic activity, influence the location of ambitious start‐ups in Barcelona between 2012 and 2015. To do this, we use micro‐geographic data of Barcelona start‐ups provided by the Catalan Government (ACCIÓ) and open data on the socioeconomic composition of Barcelona neighbourhoods from the Statistics Department of the Council of Barcelona. By dealing with neighbouring effects and endogeneity, our results suggest that localisation economies and proximity to the elements of the EE are the key factors attracting start‐ups to Barcelona's neighbourhoods. These results are crucial in helping policymakers understand the locational factors of start‐ups within the city.

Institutional environments for circular start-ups: Insights from an entrepreneurial European region

“…Specifically, Barcelona remains the fifth best ecosystem in the EU to launch a start-up, behind Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam and ahead of Munich, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid and Copenhagen (ACCIÓ, 2023). The success of Barcelona can be partially attributed to the Catalan Government that, over recent years, worked to develop a rich entrepreneurial ecosystem for founders and investors (Coll-Martínez et al, 2022). According to the Spanish Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), 2021), Catalonia produced 19% of the total Spanish GDP in 2020 and is, regarding its economic activity, comparable to Finland, Denmark or Ireland (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2018).…”

“…Catalonia offers a rich ground for this research being considered a highly entrepreneurial region of Europe (Peña-Legazkue et al, 2020). Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, was identified as one of the major European hubs for start-up creation, especially in emergent industries (Coll-Martínez et al, 2022). Specifically, Barcelona remains the fifth best ecosystem in the EU to launch a startup, behind Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam and ahead of Munich, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid and Copenhagen (ACCIÓ, 2023).…”