¿Existen incentivos a emprender en sectores tecnológicos? Un análisis sistémico e individual de la creación y rendimiento de nuevas empresas de base tecnológica

Few studies have analyzed the connection between individual behavior of the entrepreneur and the social value of entrepreneurial activity. This work contributes modestly to the discipline of entrepreneurship. It sheds light on the role played by innovative entrepreneurs in the composition of business demography of a region. We find a U-inverse relationship between the percentage of innovative firms and regional economic growth. This result suggests the existence of an optimum percentage of innovative firms. In addition, we analyze in depth the decision of an individual to engage either technology sectors or traditional ones with lower social value. The results come from a sample of approximately 20,000 companies in the Basque Country (region with a sub-optimal percentage of innovative/technological firms). They show that entrepreneurs operating in high technology sectors get a supra-return (in financial, economic and demographic terms) compared to entrepreneurs operating in sectors with a lower technological component. Therefore the results suggest that, on average -and under the situation where the percentage of innovative firms is sub-optimal- there is an alignment of public and private benefits.