THE ROLE OF FINANCING IN INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Abstract

Ege Stratejik Araştırmalar Dergisi Cilt 7, Özel Sayı, 2016 93 THE ROLE OF FINANCING IN INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS İNOVASYON EKOSİSTEMLERİ İÇERİSİNDE FİNANSMANIN ROLÜ: PANEL VERİ ANALİZİ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilek DEMIRHAN, Ege University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administrative Sciences, Business Administration, E–mail: dilek.demirhan@ege.edu.tr Res. Assist. Özgür BABACAN, Ege University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administrative Sciences, Business Administration, E–mail: ozgur.babacan@ege.edu.tr Abstract Innovation has become one of the important strategic tools to acquire and sustain competitive advantage both for firms and countries. Therefore, factors affecting national innovation ecosystems need to be investigated intensively in relevant literature. Availability of financial resources is argued to be a vital factor for fostering innovation and based on this argument the aim of this study is to explore the effects of financing opportunities on various elements of national innovation ecosystems. Financial markets and financial institutions are important elements of innovation ecosystems and the effects of them on R&D spending, university-industry collaboration and capacity for innovation are investigated by using panel data analysis in this study. Data of 115 countries between years 2010 until 2014 are used for this purpose which is obtained from World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index database. According to the findings of the study there is significant positive effect of financing opportunities on R&D spending of companies and on university-industry collaboration. However, findings of the study reveal that financing opportunites have no effect on capacity of innovation.