The Effect of Regional Characteristics on the Relationship Between University Resources and Knowledge-Based Startup’s Performance

There is considerable evidence that regional resource endowments promote the viability of firms within those regions. University resources endowments are often portrayed as especially important to the development and success of firms, especially knowledge-based firms that benefit from faculty expertise, specialized facilities, and intellectual property. Recent research, however, suggests that the contribution of university resources endowments to firm performance and viability is contingent on the presence of complementary regional resource endowments. Thus, firms that draw resources from universities are more likely to realize performance benefits when a regional economy is rich in complementary resources. We propose that for knowledge-based startup firms, in addition to the direct positive effects of regional and university resources endowments on firm performance found in prior research, regional resource endowments availability will moderate the impact of university resources endowments on firm performance. We examine these relationships within the population of university-based incubators in the US and a sample of knowledge-based firms associated with those incubators.