Nikos C. Varsakelis

Science park, a high tech fantasy?: an analysis of the science parks of Greece

Abstract The literature on science parks evaluation mainly covers the developed countries of OECD. There is a lack of evidence about the role of science parks in the less developed countries. This paper aims to partially fill this gap in literature by examining the science parks in a peripheral European country, Greece. The findings indicate that the picture of the three science parks of Greece is not the same in terms of the links between university and industry. Informal links have been developed between the firms and the local university, however, only the firms located at one science park have developed formal links, while the formal links of the companies of the other two parks are at the infant level at this time. Synergies between the on-park companies are limited only in commercial transactions and social interactions. The research type synergies are completely absent in all three parks.

The impact of patent protection, economy openness and national culture on R&D investment: a cross-country empirical investigation

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of national culture, openness of the economy, and patent protection framework on R&D investment. We test these assumptions using a cross-country analysis for 50 selected countries. The empirical analysis suggests that national culture, patent protection, and the degree of openness of an economy are determinants of the R&D intensity. The study concludes that (a) countries with a strong patent protection framework invest more in R&D, and (b) the national culture is correlated to the R&D investment.

Factors affecting patentees to start‐up new venture: evidence from Greece

Purpose – What are the conditions that influence the decision of a patentee to start a new venture? Does the possession of a patent make the individual more likely to engage in the entrepreneurial process? Does the possibility of a provisional monopoly limit the danger and the uncertainty in the decision‐making for commercial exploitation of an idea? Literature has given some light on the decision of individual patentees to establish a new venture but either these studies examine a specific group of patentees or cover national patentees’ population without distinguishing between individual and firm patentees. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to literature which aims at the detection of factors affecting the decision of individual patentees to start a new business using data from a national survey on the population of individual patentees in a less technologically developed country.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses the responses of 434 individuals‐inventors, residents of Greece, from ...

Public procurement policy and the Czech industry

The aim of this paper is to specify the extent of buy-national policies of the Czech Republic and the impact of opening its public procurement market to domestic production and employment due to the Europe Agreements of 1995. Two series of indicators are proposed for measuring the impact of Czech buy-national policies. The first series outlines the behavior of the public sector vis-à-vis domestic production and imports. The second series sketches the industrial structure of the sectors which, following the above analysis, seem to be protected by preferential public procurement. The interaction of both series of indicators can provide information about the level of protection in terms of public procurement on a sectoral level.

Does public sector crowd out entrepreneurship? Evidence from the EU regions

Purpose The decision to engage in entrepreneurial activities is grounded in personal characteristics (motivation) and external environmental factors. One of the main external factors might be the structure of the regional economic activity. Does a high share of the public sector affect positively regional entrepreneurship or vice versa? Does the diversity in regional economic activity is conducive for entrepreneurial development or the regional comparative advantage as expressed by spatial economies of scale offering more entrepreneurial opportunities? Even though economic analysis has extensively examined the impact of the public sector size on the overall national economic activity (the crowding out effect), this impact has not been into scrutiny at regional level on microeconomic issues, such as the decision to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The authors further investigate the relation between diversity and entrepreneurship at regional level. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses data for 264 NUTS II EU regions. The time span of the data set is 1999-2008. The paper applies panel data analysis to explain the cross-time cross-section variation of the dependent variable: the self-employment share in total employment at regional level. In order to measure the existence of crowding out from public sector to regional entrepreneurship, the authors use the share of regional public sector gross value added over total regional gross value added. The diversity of the regional economic activity is measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Concentration Index across sectors. Findings The findings of the paper show that there is a negative correlation between public sector share and regional entrepreneurship. Hence, as at national level, the increase in the role of the public sector in the regional economic system crowds out regional entrepreneurship. The second finding indicates that the impact of the diversity of the regional economic activity on regional entrepreneurship is inconclusive. Originality/value The originality of this paper is due to the fact that the role of the public sector on regional economic phenomena, such as entrepreneurship, is examined for the first time. Also, the investigation of the relationship between diversity (vs localization economies) and entrepreneurship is performed using data for the full sample of regions of the European Union. The findings of the paper have significant policy implications since they provide useful inputs for the design of the regional development policy. The reduction of the public sector at regional level may contribute in entrepreneurial development and finally in regional economic growth and prosperity. Besides, the regional industrial policy should focus on the exploitation of the spatially constraint economies of scope in the framework of the Triple Helix model.