Cultural environment, entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe. The importance of history
Abstract
This paper proposes a conceptual framework in which the cultural environment is shaped by historical factors and, in turn, affects entrepreneurship and innovation in the long-term. To support this idea, we have described the scientific revolution that took place in Europe at the end of the Renaissance period, when social and religious tolerance, the power of the church and the attitude of elite groups towards scientific discovery spawned different cultural environments across European regions. In addition, using historical data at NUTS-3 geographical level in Europe, we estimated an econometric model to explore the long-term impact of regional knowledge base and creativity, two important aspects of the cultural environment, on actual economic drivers. The estimates suggest that the presence of universities in the past, our measure for historical knowledge base, and the number of scientists and inventors in the past, our measure for historical creativity, have a positive effect on current levels of regional entrepreneurship and innovation. The effects of creativity depend on the scientific field of the scientists and inventors.
Il presente lavoro propone un quadro concettuale in cui l’ambiente culturale è modellato da fattori storici e, a sua volta, influisce sull’imprenditorialità e sull’innovazione a lungo termine. Per supportare questa tesi, abbiamo descritto la rivoluzione scientifica che ha avuto luogo in Europa alla fine del Rinascimento, quando la tolleranza sociale e religiosa, il potere della chiesa e l’atteggiamento delle élite verso le scoperte scientifiche hanno creato diversi ambienti culturali tra le regioni europee. Inoltre, utilizzando dati storici con un livello geografico NUTS-3 in Europa, abbiamo stimato un modello econometrico per esplorare l’impatto di lungo periodo della base di conoscenze e della creatività regionale, due aspetti rilevanti dell’ambiente culturale, su aspetti economici contemporanei. Le stime suggeriscono che la presenza di università nel passato, la nostra misura per la base di conoscenza storica, e il numero di scienziati e inventori nel passato, la nostra misura per la creatività storica, hanno un effetto positivo sull’imprenditorialità e sull’innovazione delle regioni. Inoltre, gli effetti della creatività dipendono dall’area scientifica di appartenenza degli scienziati e degli inventori.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/2508
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