Using a new dataset encompassing more than 2,200 inventions made by Max Planck Societyresearchers from 1980 to 2004, we explore how licensee and technology characteristics affectthe licensing and commercialization of technologies from public research. We find noevidence that spin-offs and...

Entry into an industry often clusters in regions where the industry is already concentrated, which is suggestive of agglomeration economies. Regional public research activities may exert another attracting force on entrants into science-based industries. Empirically these proximity effects are...

Using a new dataset encompassing more than 2,200 inventions made by Max Planck Society researchers from 1980 to 2004, we explore how licensee and technology characteristics affect the licensing and commercialization of technologies from public research. We find no evidence that spin-offs and...

Necessity spin-offs are organized by employees of incumbent firms to escape deterioratingjob conditions. This paper proposes a conceptual model of the spin-off process. Necessityspin-offs are distinguished from opportunity spin-offs on the basis of their triggering events.An empirical analysis...

This paper shows how sustainable consumption patterns can spread within a population viaprocesses of social learning even though a strong individual learning bias may favorenvironmentally harmful products. We present a model depicting how the biased transmission ofdifferent behaviors via...

Based on new data, this paper studies invention disclosure, licensing, and firm formationactivities of Max Planck Institute directors over the time period 1985-2004, and analyzestheir effects on scientists’ publication and citation records. The results are consistent withprior findings that...

Considerable debate surrounds the concept of entrepreneurial opportunities. This papercontributes to the discussion by bringing in concepts and findings from evolutionaryeconomics. It makes three points. First, adopting an evolutionary market process perspectivesheds new light on the nature of...

We use new data on the location and background of entrants into the U.S. tireindustry to analyze the factors that caused the industry to be so regionally concentratedaround Akron, Ohio, a small city with no particular advantages for tire production. Weanalyze the states where firms entered and...

During its early and formative years, the U.S. tire industry was heavily concentratedaround Akron, Ohio. We test the extent to which entrants in Ohio were attracted to theAkron area by agglomeration benefits, contributing to a self-reinforcing processenvisioned in many modern theories of...