Social Capital and Technological Start-ups in Italy

Matteo Tubiana
University of Torino, Italy
Thursday, 25 May 2017 - 12:00

This paper investigates the relationship between the local endowment of Social Capital and the emergence of new innovative firms. Both Social Capital and entrepreneurship, indeed, can be described as coordination mechanisms acting via the mobilization of territorial resources. After drafting the importance of entrepreneurship for employment and technological production, we dedicate some effort to disambiguate the multifaceted concept of Social Capital. We argue in favour of the structural/network dimension of Social Capital, suggesting that including the civic/cognitive dimension may mislead conclusions both in empirical and theoretical analysis. Our analysis focuses on the patterns of new firm creation in Italian NUTS 3 regions, exploiting the freely available data on innovative start-ups promoted by a recent new regulation. ISTAT AVQ survey provides the raw data for computing PCA and generate indexes of Social Capital. Results evidence the positive effect of structural/network Social Capital on new firm generation, but differencing across principal components. The importance of networks is immediate but fades when lagging the variable, suggesting that the positive effect is “temporary”, whereas social participation needs time to show its “structural” effect on venture creations.

Place: 

Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación
Edificio 8G, Acceso A o B, Planta 4ª (Sala Imagina. Cubo Verde)
Universitat Politècnica de València | Camino de Vera s/n

Short CV: 

Matteo Tubiana is Ph.D. student in Economics of Innovation, Knowledge and Complexity at the University of Torino, Italy, under the supervision of Professor Cristiano Antonelli. His background is not in economics, though: he obtained a bachelor in Comparative Literature and Theatre and a master in Knowledge and Communication Production and Management at the University of Turin. Eventually a M.A. at Collegio Carlo Alberto in Moncalieri (Torino) landed him to economics. His research interests reflect the heterogeneity of such a background, mainly focusing on Economics of Knowledge and Information, Subjective Well-Being and Social Capital, Complexity Sciences. He is currently a visiting researcher at Universitat de Barcelona, hosted by Professor Rosina Moreno, together with his wife, Elisabetta.