Tertiary education and science as drivers of high-technology exporting firms growth in developing countries

In nearly all the Latin American-developing countries (LA-DC), entrepreneurial activity overseas is based on export commodities, mainly on mining and agriculture. Therefore, a shift of the entrepreneurial model-commodities-based toward high-technology represents a considerable challenge for both businesspersons and policymakers. In this sense, from an environment-industry perspective, we investigated whether a country’s tertiary education and science might be drivers of the high-technology exporting firms (HTEF) growth. Furthermore, considering that most of the current studies are focused on the firm-level, by contrast, our research was conducted at a country-level. Thus, we develop a ten-year panel dataset for ten LA-DC. Through an econometric model-OLS, we provide empirical support for our hypothesis. Our results reveal that a country’s tertiary education and science both together are drivers of the HTEF growth. Therefore, our conclusions will have implications at both a policy and a practical level.