A current study by the University of Stuttgart is investigating a new measurement method for recording the startup ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg. The aim of the study is to create more clarity for the further development of the diverse startup support programmes in the startup ecosystem.
Image: Prof Dr Alexander Brem (University of Stuttgart) at the opening of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research Spring School in Stuttgart in May 2024, © Jan Potente
Facts and figures from Baden-Württemberg
With around eleven million inhabitants, Baden-Württemberg has built up a remarkable startup landscape in recent years. Between January 2018 and September 2024, around 3,975 startups were founded in THE LÄND, of which 3,215 are currently active. Around 75 per cent of these active startups are already officially registered in the commercial register, while 25 per cent are still in the early stages of development (DEEM, 2024; Hess, 2024).
Baden-Württemberg is home to startups in the fields of consumer goods, information and communication technology, medicine and healthcare as well as production and logistics. These startups are on average three and a half years old and predominantly active in B2B business.
Startups benefit from a wide range of public support measures, including state funding programmes and sector- and topic-focused accelerators provided by political decision-makers and local institutions. The region is characterised by a decentralised structure with several medium-sized cities, which contributes to a diverse startup culture. The six most important startup hotspots include Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Ulm, Mannheim and Freiburg, which have the highest density of startups per 100,000 inhabitants. Cities such as Baden-Baden, Constance, Tübingen and Heilbronn also have a high level of startup activity.
The importance of methods for measuring effectiveness
Decision-makers are working hard to support founders, startups and their ecosystems - but how can we really tell if these measures are having an impact?
Politicians and scientists are faced with the challenging task of making the effectiveness of the various forms of funding measurable. The separate analysis of startup ecosystems proves to be complex. As startup ecosystems often differ greatly in their spatial and functional dimensions, this makes it difficult to compare and evaluate interventions within a region and across regions.
Sophia Hess and co-authors (2025) present a new measurement approach that combines data at district level using systematic scale development methods. In addition to the usual archive data, this approach also includes survey data from founders at city and district level. This enables a more precise delineation of the startup ecosystems. This results in a differentiated picture that helps political and economic decision-makers to make well-founded decisions on the further development of the startup landscape in Baden- Württemberg. They can also better examine the effectiveness of their decentralised measures at a local level.
Bibliography
DEEM. (2024). Dynamic Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Monitoring. Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI), University of Stuttgart.
Hess, S. (2024). Empirical entrepreneurial ecosystem research: A guide to creating multilevel datasets. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 23, e00511.
Hess, S., Wahl, A., Johnson, A. R. (2025, in press). Measuring entrepreneurial ecosystems across levels: A district approach. Small Business Economics.
Extract from the Delta Report '24
This article first appeared in our Delta Report 2024. Here you can download the Delta Report as PDF (6MB) in full length.
