Young Innovative Companies : the new high-growth firms?

Young Innovative Companies (YIC) gained increasing attention from governments and scholars due to their expected high innovative performance and growth. Consequently, this study investigates whether Young Innovative Companies, as defined by the EU, grow more than other firms, both in terms of employment and in terms of sales. Using a database of Flemish firms over the years 2001-2008 reveals that these firms do grow significantly more than other firms. In addition, this study shows that YICs can be differentiated from New Technology Based Firms and small young firms in terms of growth, pointing to the importance of combining the individual properties characterizing YICs, that is being young (<6 years), small (<250 employees) and R&D intensive (R&D intensity > 15%). In our estimations, we also take the underlying distribution of the growth variables into account by performing quantile regressions. The results of these quantile regressions reveal that YICs especially grow faster than the other, already fast-growing firms, indicating that they are high performers. In addition, we never find that these companies perform significantly worse than the other firms

R&D policies for young SMEs : input and output effects

This paper evaluates the current focus of EU policy makers on small and medium-sized, young independent firms in high-tech sectors. Therefore, the effect of subsidies on both R&D input and R&D output is compared between independent high-tech young firms (NTBFs), independent low-tech young firms (LTBFs) and their non-independent counterparts. A treatment effects analysis reveals that full crowding-out with regard to public funding is rejected for all firm types. However, the treatment effect is highest for independent high-tech firms. The indirect effect of subsidies on R&D output is evaluated within a patent production framework. These results show that independent high-tech firms have no lower output effects than other firms and thus suggest that the current policy focus on certain firm types is not ineffective

EIB Investment Survey 2021 - EU overview

This unique insight into the corporate investment landscape in the European Union examines companies' finance needs and the constraints they face. The 2021 edition delves into the massive shock produced by the COVID-19 crisis, and the response and recovery programmes put in place by the European Union and by national governments. The report assesses the extent to which European firms are addressing the need make their businesses more green and digital. The survey is based on interviews with 12 000 companies across the 27 European Union countries, and it includes a benchmark sample from the United Kingdom and United States. This overview provides the aggregated results for the European Union. Results for individual countries will be published in January 2022

From starting to scaling

High growth startups are widely recognized as key sources of employment, productivity growth and innovation. However, while the long-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis on startups remains to be seen, many now face greater constraints than before. Continued policy support for startups therefore remains vital. In order to guide European policymakers, it is important to understand the key characteristics of high growth startups and gain insights into what sets them apart from other startups. In addition, this report examines the persistent gap between Europe and the United States (US) in terms of startup activity. The findings underscore the role of high growth startups for innovation ecosystems in Europe. The report also highlights some ways governments can continue to support startups by encouraging collaborations with startups as an active innovation partner. The report draws from unique sets of data, including the general module of the European Investment Bank Investment Survey (EIBIS) survey 2019 and the EIBIS Start-up and Scale-up Survey 2019

EIB Working Paper 2022/02 - How to foster climate innovation in the European Union

Relying on the EIB Online Survey on Climate Innovations, we investigate the different climate innovations European firms are currently using, their motivations and challenges, and their views on current regulatory frameworks. The analysis confirms that there’s a strong link between climate innovation and firm performance, but also that firms suffer from the low availability of finance. To create more successful firms in the climate sector, European policymakers should strengthen policies that reduce regulatory uncertainty and work actively to improve access to finance conditions, in particular for start-ups

EIB Working Paper 2020/08 - EIB Group Survey on Investment and Investment Finance

Providing a technical analysis of the data quality of the EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS), this paper finds that the chosen sampling framework captures the business population of interest well and that there is little evidence of selection bias during fieldwork. This suggests that EIBIS is a reliable data source to study the corporate investment situation in the EU

Incorporating innovation subsidies in the CDM framework : empirical evidence from Belgium

This paper integrates innovation input and output effects of R&D subsidies into a modified Crépon–Duguet–Mairesse (CDM) model. Our results largely confirm insights of the input additionality literature, i.e. public subsidies complement private R&D investment. In addition, results point to positive output effects of both purely privately funded and subsidy–induced R&D. Furthermore, we do not find evidence of a premium or discount of subsidy–induced R&D in terms of its marginal contribution on new product sales when compared to purely privately financed R&D

How policymakers can support EU cohesion in the post-pandemic environment

Support for economic, social, and territorial cohesion has been at the heart of the EU since its inception. However, the Covid-19 pandemic risks deepening inequalities between citizens and territories across the EU. Patricia Wruuck, Julie Delanote, Peter McGoldrick, Emily Sinnott and Debora Revoltella use a unique combination of survey data from businesses and municipalities to identify investment needs and gaps across EU regions. They suggest that a combination of finance, capacity support for project planning, and the implementation and lowering of investment barriers will be key to helping regions catch up following the pandemic

EIB Investment Survey 2021 - EU overview

This unique insight into the corporate investment landscape in the European Union examines companies' finance needs and the constraints they face. The 2021 edition delves into the massive shock produced by the COVID-19 crisis, and the response and recovery programmes put in place by the European Union and by national governments. The report assesses the extent to which European firms are addressing the need make their businesses more green and digital. The survey is based on interviews with 12 000 companies across the 27 European Union countries, and it includes a benchmark sample from the United Kingdom and United States. This overview provides the aggregated results for the European Union. Results for individual countries will be published in January 2022