Innovation performance and the role of clustering at the local enterprise level: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach

This study, utilizes an innovative methodological approach, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), investigating the drivers of heterogeneous geographies characterizing English Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). The fsQCA technique offers a novel configurational alternative to regression-based approaches investigating the effects of clustering in conjunction with firm-level innovation, university third-sector activity (TSA) and entrepreneurship, on LEPs innovation performance. The findings, offer contributions to the theories of industrial clusters and innovation, regional innovation systems, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurial university innovation within LEPs. First, supporting fsQCAs, no individual variable generates either a positive/negative innovation outcome. Second, while all positive innovation recipes include presence of the cluster variable, for negative innovation recipes, only one does not identify absence of clustering as relevant. Given that the cluster variable does not appear in any recipes without at least one of the other variables suggests activity concentration does not exist in isolation to generate innovation outcomes without other localized conditions existing, e.g. firm-level innovation. Third, there is evidence for the non-cluster-based aspects of knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship with respect to university activity and the entrepreneurial university concept. Instead, roles of entrepreneurship and university TSA, while important, appear to be more peripheral and geographically context specific

The role of entrepreneurship, innovation, and urbanity-diversity on growth, unemployment, and income: US state-level evidence and an fsQCA elucidation

The purpose of this study is to consider the differing roles played by combinations of dimensions of entrepreneurship, innovation and geography (here - urbanity-diversity) on United States (US) state level growth, unemployment and income. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) forms the primary methodology to investigate these potential roles. One important developmental feature of the analysis is the use of a novel fuzzy membership score creation process, undertaken to calibrate the considered condition and outcome variables. Moreover, fuzzy cluster analyses are undertaken, using the fuzzy c-means technique, on sets of constituent variables to produce sets of clusters interpretable to the relevant condition and outcome variables. A series of fsQCA investigations are undertaken across the different outcome variables of growth, unemployment and income. The main results of the study are that high growth entrepreneurship and innovation are key to economic growth but may require additional (though differing) supporting entrepreneurial activities and processes depending on the economic geography of the State. With regards to unemployment, it is Main Street Entrepreneurship that was consistently present for absence of unemployment causal-recipes and its absence in four of the five high unemployment causal-recipes, the absence of Urbanity-diversity was consistently shown in absence of unemployment causal-recipes and its present in three of the five high unemployment complex causal-recipes. For income, the presence of Innovation in all the high income causal-recipes and its absence in three of the four absence of income causal-recipes, Urbanity-diversity present in two of the three high income causal-recipes, and absent in three of the four absence of income causal-recipes. Overall, the results of the study suggest that for non urban-diverse states, the presence of Innovation, Growth Entrepreneurship and Main Street, and relative absence of start-up activity is of relevance in supporting positive growth, unemployment and income outcomes. For more urban-diverse states however, this combination of factors is less effective in generating positive outcomes across all three variables, suggesting trade-offs needing to be considered in these more complex economies. This study contributes to the theory of entrepreneurship and innovation by offering new insights into how different combinations of entrepreneurship, innovation and the urbanity-diversity affect growth, unemployment and income levels across different US states, consequently informing entreprenurship policy practice in terms of which policies work most effectively in which conditions. The novel applied and technical developments demonstrated in the study offer novel implementations on this area of research

Signalling entrepreneurs’ credibility and project quality for crowdfunding success:cases from the Kickstarter and Indiegogo environments

In recent years, entrepreneurs have increasingly turned to crowdfunding, a new form of entrepreneurial finance, to fund projects. Whilst research has shown that signals originating from the entrepreneur and project can affect the outcome of crowdfunding, how different signals work together under different signalling environments remains underexplored. Drawing on signalling theory, we examine how signals of entrepreneurs’ credibility (success, failure, backer and industry experience) and project quality (preparedness and third-party endorsements) produce crowdfunding success in different signalling environments. We collected a unique dataset with matched projects listed on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but with different funding models, to represent two distinct signalling environments. Results based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) identify two distinct signalling patterns that show entrepreneur’s credibility and project quality signals can complement each other to produce crowdfunding success. In an environment with less uncertainty, entrepreneur’s credibility in terms of crowdfunding experience can also compensate absent project quality to produce crowdfunding success. In an environment with higher uncertainty, entrepreneur’s credibility and project quality need to be both present to establish the necessary legitimacy for crowdfunding to be successful. Furthermore, by integrating positive (i.e. success) and negative (i.e. failure) signals, we demonstrate how signal incongruence can enhance crowdfunding success. Plain English Summary: Failure experience is an important signal in achieving crowdfunding success, but its effectiveness depends on other signals as well as the signalling environment. Our study shows how crowdfunding success can be achieved in multiple ways and that the path to success depends on the funding model of the platform used. For entrepreneurs to demonstrate credibility, backer experience and project preparedness are important. Both are under the control of the entrepreneur and well worth considering investing effort into. Importantly, the study also shows that demonstrating failure experience is important in achieving crowdfunding success. Failure experience can either replace the lack of prior success experience by demonstrating a track record of learning or it can enhance prior success experience by producing a more realistic picture of the entrepreneurs. Thus, the study offers practical implications for entrepreneurs on how to use different signals to increase the likelihood of success in reward-based crowdfunding

An appraisal of the European Cluster Observatory

This paper considers the work of the European Cluster Observatory (ECO) in light of current debates around the notion of clusters. Examining the definitions employed by the ECO, questions are posed about how effective policy can be when using highly restrictive means of analysis. Further, the work contends that, far from this being purely an analytical problem, there also exists a fundamental semantic issue regarding the term ‘economic cluster’