The relationship between university support to entrepreneurship with entrepreneurial activity in Spain: a GEM data based analysis.

Abstract The main purpose of this research is to analyse the statistical relationship between entrepreneurship university support and the level of entrepreneurial activity in Spain. Concerning the methodology, data has been provided by the National Spanish GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). Different statistical methods have been used in this research (descriptive statistics, anova, correlation, linear regression and non linear regression and logit). The main findings of the study demonstrate that there is not a significant statistical relation between entrepreneurship universities support and the entrepreneurial level of activity in Spain. Moreover, it has been found that entrepreneurial intention is statistically related with universities support, showing the improvement of the influence of high education in Spanish entrepreneurship.

Keywords Entrepreneurship * Entrepreneurial activity * University support * International model * GEM * Spain

JEL G20 * L50 * M13

Introduction

The importance of new business creation in the employment generation is now generally accepted (Storey 1982, 1988, 1994; Birley 1987; Kirchoff and Phillips 1988, 1992; White and Reynolds 1996), in economic growth (Kent 1982; Sexton 1986; Dubini 1989; Storey 1994; Wennekers and Thurik 1999), and in innovation (Drucker 1984, 1985; Acs and Audretsch 1988).

In this context, assistance policies to business formation are one of the main strategic objectives of all public administrations. Specifically, in Spain, the formal institutional framework of support for new enterprises is characterized by its extent and complexity, both in terms of the large number of organisms involved and the relations existing among them, along with by the range of services and assistance programs offered by these organisms. Also, education and training are considered to be some of the main factors to foster entrepreneurship, being knowledge is an instrument to graduated entrepreneurs, which creates more rational and well developed initiatives that have more possibilities to survive and grow. The most recent theories related with economic growth incorporate knowledge as a production factor (Teece 2002) and it is demonstrated that businesses that take into account knowledge, offer better products and services made with more intelligent processes. In this context, the government research agencies supporting R & D and innovation, and the universities as facilitators of contemporary knowledge, are fundamental catalysts for regional economic and social development. Consequently, the role of universities as organisms delivering potential entrepreneurs to society is actually becoming very relevant.

In this sense, it is assumed that the use of university support mechanisms can have positive effects both on the number of firms created from the university and on the survival rate of these firms. Spanish universities have begun to establish supporting measures to create favorable environments for entrepreneurship at the university level. But, not all nations have the same number of involved universities in this kind of process; also this institution shows variable degrees of involvement. Spain is one of the nations in which the interaction between university and entrepreneurship has only been developing for a few years. The results are discrete but positive. A good example of this is the Spanish program "Plan Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica, Desarrollo e Innovacion Tecnologica 2004-2007". In this framework, a lot of programs are being developed, such as the "RedOTRI", a powerful network of universities that are working in transference of R & D in Spain. A concrete example of its success is the "PETRI 2006-Programa de Estimulo a la Transferencia de Resultados de Investigacion", a program that fosters the Research Results Transference from the university to the enterprises in Alicante. Other relevant programs are being developed by Miguel Hernandez University (Valencian Community), Autonomous University of Madrid, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Santiago de Compostela University and Barcelona's University among others (Ruiz et al. 2004).