Effectiveness of targeted public university funding on universities’ start-up support: evidence from ‘EXIST—Potentials’

Universities play a crucial role in the creation and promotion of academic spin-offs, which is why public funding programmes are implemented to improve start-up support there. So far, however, there has been little robust evidence as to whether such programmes actually improve start-up support mechanisms at universities. Against this backdrop, the present study makes a contribution by examining the effects of a large German university funding programme entitled ‘EXIST—Potentials’ on the start-up support of the funded universities. Using an indicator that measures start-up support at universities very broadly and employing a before-and-after comparison group design, reliable results on the effectiveness of the programme are presented. The findings suggest that the programme is effective in improving start-up support mechanisms at universities.