Study on Start-Up Dynamics in the ICT Sector - High Start-Up Intensity in Urban Centres

In the urban centres Munich, Berlin, the Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, Hamburg, and Cologne/Düsseldorf, the number of newly founded ICT companies is especially high. The start-up intensity, i.e. the number of start-ups per 10,000 persons between 18 and 64 years, is the largest within the ICT sector in these regions. This is one of the central findings of the study “Gründungsdynamik im ITK-Sektor” (Start-Up Dynamics in the ICT Sector), which was conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) on behalf of the German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) with the support of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and Deutsche Telekom.

Besides the regional distribution of firm foundations in the ICT sector, the study analyses the development of the number of start-ups in the ICT sector over time as well as the survival rate, the innovation activities, the financing situation, and the human capital assets of young ICT companies. In the analysis, start-ups from the ICT sector were compared to start-ups in the remaining high-tech sector and in all sectors. The results show that the source of value added for young ICT companies mainly stems from the skills of their founders and employees. Furthermore, young ICT companies are characterised by a strong orientation towards innovation.