The Italian Start Up Act: a microeconometric program evaluation

Biancalani, Francesco; Czarnitzki, Dirk; Riccaboni, Massimo

doi:10.1007/s11187-021-00468-7

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…This result confirms the strength of the Italian startup ecosystem. This was reinforced by the Start-Up Act (Law 221/2012), which eased access to equity and debt capital for both incubated and non-incubated startups (Lukeš et al ., 2019; Biancalani et al ., 2022). The managerial performances of business incubators clearly vary between these two countries, which highlights the need to assess the effectiveness of business incubation in under-researched regions such as Romania.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring causal recipes of startup acceptance into business incubators: a cross-country study

Căpăţînă

Cristea

Micu

et al. 2023

IJEBR

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PurposeThis study aims to outline the influence of various combinations of antecedent conditions for startups being accepted into business incubators in Italy and Romania. The degree to which these conditions affect acceptance is referred to here as the Business Ideas Acceptance Degree (BIAD). The antecedent conditions considered are business idea potential, business plan quality, entrepreneurial team features, business project progress stage, available financial resources, debts of potential incubated companies, commitment to apply for national/EU funds, business area related to incubator mission, proposed technological content level, technological transfer from university/research centres and spin-off of a partner-entity of the incubator.Design/methodology/approachThe methodological toolkit used was mixed: correlation-based analysis (CBA), machine learning (ML) techniques and fsQCA. Principal component analysis enabled the selection of the most representative antecedent conditions from both business incubator samples in Italy and Romania, further used in fsQCA analyses. XGBoost algorithm has been also used. K-Means clustering, an unsupervised learning algorithm that groups unlabeled dataset into different clusters, led to the configuration of two clusters associated to each of the countries involved in this study (Romania and Italy).FindingsThe findings reveal the differences between the different antecedent conditions that can contribute to startups being accepted into business incubators in Italy and Romania. The validation of the fsQCA equifinality principle in both samples shows that the selected antecedent conditions, mixed in combinations of “causal recipes”, lead to a high BIAD by business incubators from both countries.Originality/valueThis study reveals the differences between different antecedent conditions, capable to contribute to the start-up acceptance within business incubators from Italy and Romania. Furthermore, the validation of fsQCA equifinality principle in both samples highlight that the selected antecedent conditions, mixed in combinations of causal recipes, lead to a high degree of business ideas' acceptance in business incubators.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring causal recipes of startup acceptance into business incubators: a cross-country study

Căpăţînă

Cristea

Micu

et al. 2023

IJEBR

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“…To compare the findings to more traditional approaches, we also conduct analysis with a more standard difference in difference estimator that has been widely employed in numerous recent publications in SBEJ (Amamou et al, 2022 ; Bailey, 2017 ; Biancalani et al, 2022 ; Liu et al, 2019 ; Dosi et al, 2012 ; Lewis, 2017 ) that show various specifications and empirical strategies of this approach. There seems to be no consensus on which strategies are preferred, with scholars trading increasingly restrictive assumptions with solutions to various issues, such as heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation.…”

Section: Empirical Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We primarily follow the empirical strategy adopted in the recent study by Biancalani et al ( 2022 ), who also offer a more detailed explanation of the methodology behind the estimator. Our difference in difference estimator thus departs from the standard specification in that the treatment variable is equal to 1 for firms receiving SBRR and only during years when they actually receive SBRR and 0 otherwise in models (1) to (4).…”

Section: Empirical Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Business Property Tax Reductions and Firm Productivity

Matikonis

Gobey

2023

Small Bus Econ

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We investigate the productivity spillovers from the UK government’s decision to use extensive property tax reductions as a key instrument to stimulate innovation in smaller businesses and drive local growth. To capture the complex interaction and clustering of hierarchical effects, we apply non-parametric Random Effects Expectation Maximisation algorithm that complements more standard econometric estimators, namely matching to control for endogeneity and control functions to estimate total factor productivity. These approaches enabled us to incorporate various contextual configurations in comparing the recipients of these reductions to non-recipients with regard to productivity, in which the UK has experienced a considerably worse performance than its peers since the great recession. Contrary to policy assumptions and business community expectations, we show that generic tax reductions, when significant, are mostly associated with lower productivity and thus have been unsuitably chosen as a policy mechanism to stimulate productivity growth. We further show how instruments that are not built for causality could be beneficial for policy evaluation.

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“…Relevant research conducted in various countries and settings (e.g. Mueller, 2023a;Biancalani et al, 2022;Busu et al, 2021;Caliendo and T€ ubbicke, 2021;Audretsch et al, 2020;Goetz et al, 2010;Ayoub et al, 2017;Butler et al, 2016) offers valuable information to decision-makers regarding the range of options available. Most evaluations of startup support measures, however, focus on examining whether a particular measure under investigation generates effects or not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What drives the effectiveness of public startup support programs? Empirical insights from the “EXIST-business startup grant”

Mueller

2023

JEPP

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PurposeIn a recent quasi-experimental study, the effects of a large German public startup support measure entitled “EXIST – Business Startup Grant” (EGS) on a variety of outcomes were determined, but without examining which factors are responsible for these program effects. The present study investigates the contribution of several factors to the success of the program in promoting product development and business planning.Design/methodology/approachBy means of a two-wave panel design and fixed-effects panel regressions, evidence is generated that provides unique insights into the effect mechanisms of a publicly funded startup grant. The data for the study come from the program monitoring of the startup support measure.FindingsSeveral factors were identified that significantly drive the effects of the program on the product development and business planning stages, namely the program-induced improvement of the skills of the startup team, intensification of cooperation with pilot customers/users, increase in the degree of networking and advice/support from third parties and the effort put into business plan preparation.Originality/valueStartup support programs are a crucial aspect of technology and innovation policies, which are often evaluated in order to find out whether they generate effects. Assessing whether a program is effective or not, however, does not usually allow specific recommendations on how to improve the measure to be developed. Further information on the mechanisms of intervention is needed for this purpose. The present study takes up on this idea and provides this information for a specific type of public startup support measure.

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The Italian Start Up Act: a microeconometric program evaluation

Cited by 23 publications

References 65 publications

Exploring causal recipes of startup acceptance into business incubators: a cross-country study

Exploring causal recipes of startup acceptance into business incubators: a cross-country study

Small Business Property Tax Reductions and Firm Productivity

What drives the effectiveness of public startup support programs? Empirical insights from the “EXIST-business startup grant”

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