Arvids Ziedonis
KU Leuven, Belgium

Abstract:

Science and technology companies emanate from hospitals, research labs, and established firms across the United States. Yet the resources required for commercialization and growth tend to agglomerate in a few U.S. states and regions. Despite widespread intervention at the state–government level, little is known about the proclivity of science and technology startups to leave their states of initial incorporation and the effects of state programs that aim to retain them. We provide new evidence based on 6,380 life science and information technology (IT) startups that initially locate in the Great Lakes Region between 1990 and 2009. We find that, conditional on survival, the out–migration rate is higher for growth–oriented firms than firms not experiencing growth and that the timing of relocation peaks 5–6 years post-founding, a critical “up or out” period for entrepreneurial firms. Exploiting time–varying policy shifts across states within the region, our findings regarding the effectiveness of these programs is mixed. We fail to find an effect on the retention of young firms, a class of start-ups often targeted by these programs. Another desirable class of firms, growth–oriented start–ups, appears to be more likely to be retained following the implementation of a program than are firms not experiencing growth.

Arvids Ziedonis is a professor of strategy and innovation at KU Leuven in Belgium. He has also taught in the business schools at Boston University, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania.  He received his Ph.D. and MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an MS in engineering also from Berkeley.

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Venue
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Building B26/B – Room 0.2 – ground floor
Via Lambruschini 4/B, Milano