Themain goal of this paper is to investigate the effects of the availability
of complementary assets needed for start-up formation on the amount
of R&D investments by an incumbent firmand on the creation of start-ups
by former employees, in a setup characterized by weak property rights.1
Throughout the paper we denote with ‘complementary assets’ all the
assets that are needed to bring a new idea to the market. As we argue
in some details below through specific examples, such assets might
be provided by third parties in the market, or directly by incumbents.