Knowledge-Based Start-ups and Entrepreneurship Policy Research Papers (original) (raw)

A growing body of literature recognizes increasingly the vital importance of entrepreneurial activity as driving force of the social and economic development and societal wealth. Particularly, a crucial role has been assigned to newborn firms. Among newborn firms, start-ups, in particular, are considered to be one of the most important channels for industrial changing and renewal of the economic system. Start-ups, i.e., have the potentiality to accompany and to support the transition of whole national economies toward progress and border-line knowledge, as well as the industrial transformations of the local areas toward the future directions provided by innovations and high-tech industries.
Consistent with this framework, since last decade, European Union (EU) stimulates the Member States to promote entrepreneurial activities by proposing several initiatives directed to support the entrepreneurial paths among an increasing number of individuals (EC, 2003; 2006). These initiatives are mainly intended to involve individuals with an entrepreneurial attitude still latent or with higher potentiality to found a successful start-up. Within the initiatives aimed at supporting the start-ups, one which seems to have an increasingly recognition among policy makers, with an increasing audience of followers and participants, is the proposition of start-up competitions (hereinafter SUCs).
Also known as business plan competitions, SUCs could be meant as a selective instrument of entrepreneurship policy aimed at encouraging the starting-up by relying on subjective aspects of self-realization and self-efficacy of the participants, rather than on financial, monetary or fiscal rewards. Furthermore, it is organized not only by public institutions, but often also by private specialized organizations.
In so doing, SUCs well suited the ongoing economic requirements of many EU countries. The ideas proposed with these SUCs are more likely to be consistent with the industrial structure and development level of EU countries.
Although the increasing diffusion of SUCs, there is a gap in literature about the social and economic advantages provided by these SUCs, as well as about their functioning (Schwartz et al., 2013). Nor a comprehensive and systematic overview of SUCs is currently existent.
Whit this in mind, the paper aims at presenting an explorative cross-section analysis of Italian SUCs in order to provide an overview of the chief characteristics of these initiatives and their potential impact on the territorial context. Coherently, the focal goal of this paper is to provide a first evaluation of SUCs for a better understanding of their contribution as entrepreneurship policy instrument aimed at facilitating the entrepreneurial process and, in so doing, to increase both the number of nascent entrepreneurs and the probability of success of such initiatives.