www.projectfires.eu

Mark SandersUtrecht School of Economics

FIRES and the University the role of universities in an entrepreneurial society

Keynote Address ICUBERD 201830-11 Pecs, Hungary

www.projectfires.eu

Our Mission

• An Institutional Reform Agenda

• To achieve what?

• Why institutional reform?

• How are we different?

• The Entrepreneurial Society and its Enemies

www.projectfires.eu

The Challenges

• Beyond Entrepreneurship Policy

• The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan

• Educate, Tax/Subsidize, Deregulate

• The Startup Manifesto

• Etc…

www.projectfires.eu

The Obstacles

• Institutions of the managed society

• Availability and Allocation

• Protecting workers, creditors and inventors

• Banking, Patenting and Social Security

• Insiders, Outsiders and the Golden Cage

www.projectfires.eu

Shoulders to Stand On

• Entrepreneurial Society and its Enemies• Popper’s Open Society

• Contestability

• Schumpeter’s Capitalist Dynamics• Competition and Creative Destruction

• Audretsch’ Entrepreneurial Society• Inclusiveness and Sustainability

• Winning Hearts and Minds for FIRES

www.projectfires.eu

What do Entrepreneurs need?S: Stability (Basics Secure)

P: Personality (Personal Attributes)

I: Ideas (Knowledge Spillovers)

R: Risk appetite (Willing to take a Risk)

I: Investors (Finance)

T: Team (Team)

www.projectfires.eu

Our Analysis

1. Inclusive, Sustainable and Innovative Growth requires Entrepreneurship2. There is no shortage of ideas, talent and capital in Europe3. Too little flows to (productive) entrepreneurial activity4. Institutions protecting creditors, workers and inventors block these flows5. Effective Reform requires a historical approach6. Effective Reform should aim to channel more capital, labor and knowledge

to entrepreneurial activity7. Effective Reform requires finding and mobilizing our allies and addressing

the right political levels.

www.projectfires.eu

The Work

• 5 Work Packages

• Historical Evolution of Relevant Institutions

• What is bedrock, what is reformable?

• Establish Desirability and Urgency of Transition

• Why do we need/want a more entrepreneurial society?

www.projectfires.eu

The Work

• 5 Work Packages• Assess the state of the Union

• How do we measure how EU-ecosystems are doing?

• Investigate entrepreneurial processes across VoC• Variety (VoC) in Europe

• Match Policy Proposals to Policy Makers• Competenties, Coherence and Feasibility

www.projectfires.eu

Engage Our Stakeholders

Mobilize our Allies

Win over our “Enemies”

Share with our Colleagues Instruct our

Policy Makers

We are here

www.projectfires.eu

FIRES and the University

• What institutions matter for Entrepreneurs?• Universities matter (e.g. Mowery and Shane, 2002; Rothaermel et al., 2007; Djokovic and Souitaris, 2006) Top-10 most active authors up to 2005: Wright, Siegel, Link, Lockett, Shane, Thursby, Mowery, Sampat, Scott, Thursby, see Rothaermel et al., 2007, p. 702.

• Micro-level: effect and role of academic entrepreneurs(e.g. Doutriaux, 1987; Roberts, 1991; Olofson and Wahlbin, 1984; Clarysse and Moray, 2004; Birley, 2002)

• Meso-level: inter-university variation in spinout creation (e.g. Link and Scott, 2005; Shane, 2002; Monck et al. 1988; Lockett and Wright, 2005; Powers and McDougal, 2005)

• Macro-level: government and industry support/incentives (e.g. Lee, 1996; Shane, 2002; Lockett et al., 2005; Goldfarb and Henrekson, 2003)

• How did they Evolve?

www.projectfires.eu

FIRES and the University

The role of the university in the entrepreneurial society goes beyond patenting, licensing and start-up generation, and extends to broader activities that promote entrepreneurial thinking, values, institutions, and what is referred to as ‘‘entrepreneurship capital’’. Audretsch, D. (2014). From the entrepreneurial university to the university for the entrepreneurial society. Journal of Technology Transfer, 39(3), 313–321.

www.projectfires.eu

Universities in Europe University of Karueein (859), Fez, MoroccoUniversity of Bologna (1088), Bologna, Italy

A history of struggle for autonomy:Relation with the Church

(i.e. University of Padua 1222)Relation with Worldly Powers

(i.e. University of Napels Federico I)

www.projectfires.eu

Universities in EuropeUniversities are founded all the time.They are all “children of their age”.Their vintage can proxy for the attitude to business (?).We have much more...

Source: ETER database

www.projectfires.eu

Universities in Europe

www.projectfires.eu

www.projectfires.eu

FIRES and the University

• How did they evolve historically?• Older Universities have struggled to get and maintain autonomy

• Younger ones were founded to serve a variety of needs

• Non-university institutions complement the ecosystem

• What is the common ground in Europe?• Early universities share a locally diverse but common history

• Younger ones more nationally diversified and specialized

• Separate Generalist Universities and Specialized Applied Education

• Land grant, endowments and private versus public funding

www.projectfires.eu

Universities in Europe

2294 German and UK patenting/publishing life scientists 2007Haeussler and Colyvas, 2011, p. 47

www.projectfires.eu

UK-sample 22.000 surveys150 institutions, 2008-9 Abrue et al., 2016, p. 704

www.projectfires.eu

FIRES and the University

• Data and Results to date mostly US (UK)

• Regression Analysis

• Marginal effects at sample mean

• Homogeneous parameters

• Assumed normal error distributions

• Econom(etr)ics is A-historical and A-geographical

www.projectfires.eu

FIRES and the University

• What would this imply?• Average effects will be noisy• Academic Entrepreneurial Ecosystems differ systematically• What works in the US will not work in the EU

• How can we use this?• University history is exogenous to spinouts, but correlated (?) through

lasting institutions and culture• Use 3SLS with university history as instrumental variable in regional

growth regressions to identify impact of university through academic entrepreneurship

• Use latent class to keep ecosystem broad and allow data to speak

www.projectfires.eu

The FIRES-approach inspires!

Join us in Brussels on May 25th for the FIRES Final Conference!

Check out www.projectfires.eu