Green start-ups and local knowledge spillovers from clean and dirty technologies

There is wide consensus about the importance of green technologies in achieving superior economic and environmental performances. However, the literature on their determinants has neglected the creation of green start-ups as a way of introducing green technologies onto the market. Drawing upon the knowledge spillovers theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE) and on previous literature on the complex and systemic nature of green technologies, we have tested the relevance of local knowledge stocks, distinguishing between clean and dirty stocks, in the creation of green start-ups. Moreover, the effects of the technological composition of local stocks have been investigated, by focusing on both related and unrelated technological variety, as well as on coherence. Consistently with the recent literature, green start-ups are associated with higher levels of variety, thus pointing to the relevance of diverse and heterogeneous knowledge sources, although in related and complementary technological fields.