Part of the highly successful Studies in Global Competition series and written by an author based at the Max Planck Institute in Germany – one of the world’s leading centres of evolutionary economics, this book looks at the medium to long term development of firm founding activity. Developing a framework with which to focus on development and change in regional firm founding activities and split into two sections, it: explores changes in regional firm founding activities; looking at empirical evidence based on the analysis of fifty German regions examines positive examples or 'role models' that can lead to change in regional start-up activities, analyzing its impact both theoretically and empirically in the German town of Jena. Incisive and based on empirical research, this book is a key resource for students engaged with change and development in entrepreneurial and regional start-up activities and the environmental impact of start up decisions as well as to policy makers in this area.