Knowledge production and innovation: the potential of local universities to create technology-based companies in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais

Abstract

This paper analyses the effects of the human capital (university researchers and graduate students) and the knowledge assets (academic publications, academic patent petitions and postgrad scholarship numbers) of the universities of Minas Gerais State, Brazil, on the creation of technology-based companies (TBCs) in its 12 mesoregions. Based on the InovaData-MG TBC census and open government data from the years 2000 to 2017, this study seeks to outline a knowledge production function for the Minas Gerais ecosystem and explore possible divergences in the innovation potential of its mesoregions. The negative binomial regression model was used to test hypotheses using variables from the state's mesoregions that quantify the human capital characteristics that generate research and its knowledge assets to assess their influence on the new TBC creation. The data analysis methodology has an explanatory and predictive character which made it possible to verify part of the proposed empirical model's validity. The results of this work confirm that human capital of universities and region maturity positively influences the average propensity to create new TBC.