Entrepreneurs for a low carbon world: How environmental knowledge and policy shape the creation and financing of green start-ups

Theodor F. Cojoianu*, Gordon L. Clark, Andreas G.F. Hoepner, Paolo Veneri, Dariusz Wójcik

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

We investigate how different types of environmental policies and new regional environmental knowledge affect new venture creation in and financing of green (low carbon), brown (fossil fuel) and gray (unrelated to natural resources) technologies across 24 OECD countries and 293 regions over the period 2001-13. We find that new regional environmental knowledge positively impacts new venture creation in green technologies, and moderately in gray industries. Gray industries also benefit from enhanced start-up financing in regions where new environmental knowledge is created, confirming that environmental knowledge creation yields positive externalities beyond the green sector. We also find that a more stringent environmental policy regime negatively impacts the creation of new ventures across sectors, but most prominently, it discourages new fossil fuel ventures. However, once entrepreneurs decide to start a new business, stringent environmental policies have on aggregate a positive effect on new venture financing across sectors, particularly through feed-in-tariffs and emission standards.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103988
JournalResearch Policy
Volume49
Issue number6
Early online date29 May 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2020

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • environmental entrepreneurship
  • environmental finance
  • environmental policy
  • fossil fuels
  • green venture capital
  • knowledge spillover

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