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Local networks and new business formation

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  • Füner, Lena
  • Berger, Marius
  • Bersch, Johannes
  • Hottenrott, Hanna

Abstract

New business formation is a key driver of regional transformation and development. While we know that a region's attractiveness for new businesses depends on its resources, infrastructure, and human capital, we know little about the role of local business networks in promoting or impeding the birth of new firms. We construct local business networks connecting more than 350 million nodes consisting of managers, owners and firms using administrative data on all German businesses from 2002 to 2020. Differentiating between serial and de-novo entrepreneurs, we show a positive but decreasing relation between a region's connectedness and firm entry of serial entrepreneurs. Networks are, moreover, positively linked to firm survival. Relating our findings to a measure of ownership concentration, we show that networks provide additional explanations for regional variation in new business formations. These patterns are robust to synthetic instrumental variable estimations

Suggested Citation

  • Füner, Lena & Berger, Marius & Bersch, Johannes & Hottenrott, Hanna, 2023. "Local networks and new business formation," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-067, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:283589
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    New Firm Formation; Business Networks; Serial Entrepreneurship; RegionalDynamics; Ownership Concentration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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