On the geography of new green-tech-based firms (NGTBF): the role of “green demand” across EU28 regions

This paper investigates the role of the local demand for green products and services in the localisation of New Green Tech-Based firms (NGTBF). Drawing on regional entrepreneurship research, we maintain that the geographical distribution of customers’ green preferences affects that of new ventures in the development of environmental technologies and that the local presence of a green kind of demand positively correlates with the incidence of the latter. We propose a new patent-based measurement of NGTBF at the regional level and by proxying local green demand with regional info about environmental concern and green voting, we test this hypothesis with respect to 212 NUTS2 regions in the EU28 over the period 2002–2017. We find that, while regions with a higher level of green voting are not systematically more likely to host NGTBF, the regional presence of environmental concern is a significant determinant of the location of these new ventures. These results suggest that with nuances, green demand can be an important driver of green entrepreneurship and that regional sustainability policy should pay attention to it.