Does location in a science park really matter for firms’ intellectual capital performance?
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of being located in a science park (SP) on the level of a firm's intellectual capital (IC) performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 183 Italian firms (i.e. 61 tenant and 122 non-tenant firms), and through the GLS technique, the authors regress the firms’ IC performance across various explicative variables including a dummy that discriminates tenant and non-tenant firms.
Findings
Consistently with expectations, the results show that the location of a firm in a SP leads to improved IC performance. Moreover, the authors find that some other firm characteristics, such as size, age, and leverage, are important predictors of its IC-based performance.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is small and the impact on performance might be biased by factors related to the regional context (e.g. level of industrialization, quality of education, and science system).
Practical implications
Implications for policy makers: support the growth of firms in SPs especially in those industries full of firms with scarce performance in IC. Implications for SP managers: they could “sell” (in terms of marketing) to both entrepreneurs to attract and policy makers this result. Implications for institutional investors: they should look at SPs with greater interest to find high-quality firms and improve their screening activity.
Originality/value
This paper aims to extend literature about factors explaining the level of a firm's IC performance and the current understanding of the impact of SPs at firm level.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank three Italian science parks for providing information useful to the realization of this paper.
Citation
Schiavone, F., Meles, A., Verdoliva, V. and Del Giudice, M. (2014), "Does location in a science park really matter for firms’ intellectual capital performance?", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 497-515. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-07-2014-0082
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited