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Drawing on the literature on entrepreneurship and competitive dynamics, we investigate how technological overlap between spinouts and parent firms influences corporate investors' decisions regarding investments in spinouts. We suggest that a high level of technological overlap between a spinout and its parent firm deters potential corporate investors from making an investment in the spinout because of competitive tension arising from anticipated hostile actions by the parent firm. We further suggest that these negative effects are contingent on the tradeoffs between competitive risks and benefits. Our findings show that the negative effects are amplified when parent firms have a strong litigiousness in claiming their intellectual property rights. However, we find that the negative effects are mitigated when corporate investors can expect benefits from gaining indirect access to parent firms' technological knowledge. Using a sample of corporate venture capital investments in the U.S. medical device industry, we find evidence that supports our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University-industry collaborations have been largely met with skepticism and resistance from faculty critics, who are concerned about the Academy adopting market-like behaviors and relying too heavily on industry. Yet, the pressures to engage in collaborations with industry, particularly to provide capital for universities, are likely to continue to increase. Guided by the capital-skill hypothesis, this study seeks to examine these realities through a case of a university-industry collaboration. We use an action research approach to analyze a collaboration between an academic college with a non-corporate centric focus at a public research university and a corporate entity within the healthcare field in which the college was contracted to develop a diversity, equity, and inclusion plan for the healthcare company. Findings illustrate how universities and industry can mutually benefit from collaborations when they adhere to what the authors refer to as the complementarity investment framework. Generated from the findings, this framework consists of four UIC design components: (a) the parties identify and clarify their roles, activities, and contributions to manage expectations; (b) the parties participate in learning exchanges, which are significantly valued as a component to this UIC; (c) the parties are open to experiences including unintended, yet positive, outcomes emerging from the UIC; and (d) the parties capitalize on the expert development by guiding and mentoring students as apprentices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the survival rates of USOs formed by universities in the UK's West Midlands region between 1983 and 2013 with those from existing studies in the literature. Data were collected from a range of secondary sources to enhance the accuracy of the USO dataset. Survival rates were found to be significantly lower than in previous studies despite the existence of prominent research universities within the region. It is proposed that the difference is in part methodological with the current study including USOs that may have been omitted using different methodologies that rely on institutional memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the managerial literature and policymakers have recently emphasized the potential role of university spin-offs (USOs) as drivers of regional development. Specifically, USOs may support regional development by exploiting the scientific knowledge developed by their parent universities into industrial innovations, thus spreading knowledge spillovers that can be in turn exploited by other local firms. In this paper, we analyse how the use of these spillovers at the regional level may depend on the USOs' capabilities to implement scientific knowledge into their innovation development as well as to align this knowledge to the needs of local organizations. We discuss how these capabilities may be more easily developed by USOs of generalist universities that focus their scientific effort on a broader range of scientific domains and tend to establish stronger relationships with local firms. To test our hypotheses, we analyse data on the patents filed by a large sample of German and Italian USOs. Our results confirm that both a larger use of scientific knowledge and a higher generality of the parent university increase the regional impact of the USOs' inventions. These findings may shed further light on the actual contribution of USOs to the regional development, by providing a better understanding of their role in the transfer of scientific knowledge from the parent universities to the other actors operating in the regional environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the understanding of university spinoff (USO) development by analysing structural properties of their shareholder networks over time and across different regions. Theoretically, we propose a new stage-based typology of USO development across regions. Empirically, the study utilises a sample of 1033 academic spinoffs founded by 87 universities across 12 unitary regions in the UK considering the diversity of spatial contexts in the USO development. We undertake a social network analysis of relations USOs form with their parent universities and shareholders by adopting 'betweenness centrality' and 'structural holes' as two key measures. By employing this novel network-based view of firm development across regions, this study builds on the development model of USOs by identifying three key phases of USO development: (1) organisation phase, (2) exploitation phase, and (3) maturity and reorganisation phase. Second, we observe differences in USOs in terms of shareholder network development across diverse regional contexts. We propose a novel typology of entrepreneurial regions to better understand the diverse spatiality of USOs: peripheral lock-in, entrepreneurial periphery, rigid core, and entrepreneurial core. We call for further research to capture the long-term development and variable growth paths of USOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the past and present of the university spin-off (USO) phenomenon by identifying research findings and synthesizing different spin-off practices from around the globe. The evolution and future of this phenomenon are then discussed, alongside potential new lines of research. This study adopts a systematic literature review approach, combined with a Multiple Correspondence Analysis. This approach allows for the creation of a robust and reliable synthesis of the research carried out over the past 35 years (1986–2020), offering a fine-grained depiction of the USOs' underlying relationships through multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). This paper contributes to scholarly literature on academic entrepreneurship by providing insights into the analytical trends of the past, current evidence on the configuration of USOs, and discussions of the future of USO research. Several implications for improving performance, productivity, and reinforcing capabilities emerge to assist spin-off CEOs, university managers, and policymakers. This paper fulfils an identified need by revealing the trajectory of the USO research field. Additionally, it presents an up-to-date reflection of USO antecedents, decisions, and outcomes, outlining an agenda for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, understanding and empirical investigation of the internationalisation processes of university spin-outs (USOs) have been limited. Few studies have explored the role of the specific characteristics of their core technology, in particular their innovativeness, as a determinant of their early internationalisation. This is also an issue which is under-explored within the general international business field. To address this gap, the purpose of our paper is to examine how the innovativeness of USOs influence the pace of their internationalisation. To achieve this, we explore how innovativeness is nurtured and cumulatively developed during born global (BG) and non-born global (NBG) USOs' pre-foundation technology development trajectory. BGs represent a category of young, usually, high-technology firms that internationalise within 3 years of inception. By exploring the pre-foundation technology development process of Italian USOs across two research-intensive universities, we found that BG and NBG USOs differed in aspects around their innovative proclivity, firm innovativeness and the nature of the innovation. Specifically, we found that BG USOs had a longer pre-foundation period, focused on a specific invention with limited fields of application, and offered 'really new' innovations. BG USOs' products or services were also developed and largely standardised before market entry, which accelerated their internationalisation. In contrast, NBG USOs were characterised by short pre-foundation periods, relied on incremental innovation and a wide spectrum of innovative competencies. They also relied on technologies with a broad scope of market application and customised their offerings based on client needs, which slowed their market entry and internationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic spin-offs have become widely recognized vehicles for the commercialization of research results, fostering regional growth by universities. However, expectations of benefits are accompanied by high failure rates, low survival rates and fragile development paths. Our study addresses the role and contribution of the parent university in ASO growth. While most prior research focused on external contingencies relevant for successful ASO development, we turn towards the relationship between the parent university and the ASO in order to better understand how its dynamics can support or impede growth. From a behavioral perspective, we argue that these relationships are consequential to the behavior of ASO entrepreneurs, their attention focus and their business development. Our study focuses on trust- and distrust-building mechanisms between the ASO and its parent university. In order to identify relevant patterns experienced by individuals, we use a purposeful sampling procedure for maximum heterogeneity. We collected 19 semi-structured interviews from 29 informants at the same research university, along with its 10 ASOs at various stages of development and from diverse academic fields. We follow a hybrid coding procedure, and thematically group emerging topics into overarching themes to find that trust and distrust appear at the same time within the same relationships. The interplay between trust and distrust appears as asymmetrical and ambivalent. We identify the mechanisms that lead to trust and to distrust at the individual and institutional levels. Our findings contribute to better understanding the behavioural underpinnings of effective ASO-parent university relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research identifies the drivers of the growth of academic spin-offs (ASOs). Empirical studies have found few successful cases of ASOs from a firm-level perspective; many companies fail, and others tend to remain small without making a meaningful contribution to local economic development. Consequently, analysing the factors affecting spin-off growth is important to understand their potential benefits for society. A large portion of studies focus on external drivers of ASO growth, while we concentrate on the internal dimension, analysing the effect of the heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams on the performance of ASOs from a longitudinal perspective. Our paper investigates how ASO entrepreneurial team heterogeneity, both horizontal (cognitive) and vertical (status), and changes in entrepreneurial team heterogeneity between the prefoundation and postfoundation stages affect ASO performance. The results show that vertical heterogeneity in the composition of the prefoundation team is a driver of ASO performance over a shorter time horizon (one year) and more so if the average seniority of academics is low. Horizontal heterogeneity plays a negative moderating role. However, longer-term performance is more influenced by horizontal heterogeneity, implying slower growth after the spin-off foundation. These findings should provide important insights for both managers and Italian policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years, the role of universities has been faced with important changes that led to substantial attention from both researchers and policy-makers to their third mission, labelled 'a contribution to society', besides the teaching and research missions. University spin-offs (USOs or ASOs, for Academic spin-offs), emerged among the potential means for universities to pursue the third mission. Research on the creation, emergence, development and scaling up of USOs has grown significantly with contributions from multiple subject areas. This special issue contributes to the research debate by presenting novel insights that deepen and enhance our understanding of the dynamics surrounding the entrepreneurial aspects of academic spin-offs, their growth and their mutual relationship with regional development. The special issue provides rigorous qualitative, quantitative and theoretical investigations to form a research agenda which will help guide future research efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although teams play a crucial role in academic spin-offs, research on this topic is still in its early stage. To stimulate discussion and encourage further studies, this paper offers a much-needed overview of prior research on teams in the context of academic spin-offs. By examining studies from 1980 to 2016, our review shows that extant work has focused primarily on the human and social capital endowments of academic entrepreneurs, while much less attention has been paid to team formation and evolution and team functioning. Based on a critical assessment of the status quo, we discuss open research questions and suggest that scholars need to account for the temporal context of academic spin-offs and for the type of technology that is commercialized. Furthermore, we encourage research on founder identities and the creation of social good via academic spin-offs, as such research would allow scholars to push significantly beyond the traditional view of academic spin-off teams, which emphasizes personal wealth creation, licensing incomes, and financial profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on arguments from network research, academic entrepreneurship literature, and knowledgebased theory, this article applies a contingency approach to analyze, in the context of academic spinoffs (ASOs), the relationship between the size and the frequency of contacts of the industry network and the three components of the knowledge conversion capability (KCC): conceptualization and visioning, configuration and design, and embodiment and integration. Specifically, we suggest that the appropriate industry network configuration depends on two contingency factors: the knowledge task underlying the different components of KCC-search and transfer-and the tacit vs. codified character of the knowledge base of the ASO. From the analysis of 167 Spanish ASOs, our results indicate that the relationship between industry network size and frequency of contacts and KCC is affected by the two contingency factors being considered in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend the knowledge-based perspective to consider the impact of spin-out founders on knowledge transfer to new ventures.We argue that existing theory largely ignores the founder's role as a team catalyst who mobilizes a team and transmits the team's knowledge to a new venture. We address this gap by building theory on the role of a spin-out founder as a facilitator of co-mobility and whose impact on firmoutcomes is mediated by the size and organizational experience of the recruited team. The support for our hypotheses, through use of linked employee-employer U.S. Census data from the legal services industry, has theoretical and practical implications for the knowledge-based view and human resource strategies for both existing and entrepreneurial firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interstitial spaces are informal settings where interactions among actors from different organizational fields are more likely to succeed despite the institutional complexity that they face. Individuals acting as "catalysts" have been identified as being particularly important in the dynamics of these interstitial spaces. However, the focus to date has been on individuals interacting in interstitial spaces that have developed informally, and we know little about how formal organizations might purposefully create and manage interstitial spaces to initiate cross-field interaction. Using data from a study of six organizations involved in technology transfer activities between universities and industry in Italy, we explore how formal organizations use interstitial spaces to encourage cross-field collaboration and identify the set of formal and informal activities employed by catalysts to manage the complexity that arises. In addition, our analysis identifies two activities implemented at the organizational and field level by the formal organizations to support the interstitial spaces. Based on these results, we develop a model of the management of interstitial spaces by formal organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how institutional differences affect university entrepreneurship. We focus on ownership of faculty inventions, and compare two institutional regimes, the United States and Sweden. In the United States, the Bayh–Dole Act gives universities the right to own inventions from publicly funded research, whereas in Sweden, the professor privilege gives the university faculty this right. We develop a theoretical model and examine the effects of institutional differences on modes of commercialization, entrepreneurship or licenses to established firms, as well as on probabilities of successful commercialization. We find that the US system is less conducive to entrepreneurship than the Swedish system if established firms have some advantage over faculty startups, and that, on average, the probability of successful commercialization is somewhat higher in the United States. We also use the model to perform four policy experiments, as suggested by recent policy debates in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We investigate the private returns for academics that start new businesses. Total earnings for the universe of 478 individuals working at Swedish universities who quit to become full-time entrepreneurs between 1999 and 2008 are compiled. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of entrepreneurial returns to include capital gains. Entrepreneurship for academics appears a gradual process and episodic. Earnings are similar before and after becoming an entrepreneur, and dividends and capital gains are inconsequential. But the income risk is more than three times higher in entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: This paper aims to propose an integrated methodology for evaluating academic spin-offs (ASOs) for supporting both the development phase and performance evaluation. The ASOs have peculiar characteristics compared to other start-up companies and the debate on their evaluation is still open. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed methodology, adopting a lean approach, faces the typical problems that characterize the growth of an ASO: the excessive attention to the technological aspects with respect to the commercial and managerial ones; and the need for evaluation systems that try to evaluate all risk areas and to highlight any misalignment. The methodology was built also starting from the results of an Erasmus + research project, co-funded by the European Commission, called spin-off lean acceleration. Findings: The methodology proposes to monitor the main risk areas (market, technological, implementation, governance and financial). For each of these areas, at first, a framework and a checklist are proposed for supporting the qualitative assessment of the potential of each areas. In the second part, a set of metrics for monitoring the performances and to understand if the spinoff is developing in the right direction is proposed. Moreover, the methodology was applied to the spin-offs at the University of Calabria (Italy), and the paper reports the first results obtained. Originality/value: A new canvas model (lean acceleration canvas), more specific and suited to the context of ASOs, was developed and tested. A lean approach has been adopted also for understanding the weakness of traditional methods. The proposed methodology could be used by the technology transfer offices in their institutional activity of supporting ASOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic spin-offs are increasingly assuming a relevant role in the social and economic contexts. However, only a few studies have looked at the specific role of human capital in these organisations. The contradictory dimension in human capital is the role of the founder's education, in which some studies have revealed the relationship between entrepreneurial motivation and education levels. Other studies indicated that these two variables are uncorrelated. Hence, this study seeks to explore and understand the reasons for these contradictory results by conducting case studies using indepth interviews on six Portuguese academic spin-offs. The findings have allowed us to understand causes and difficulties experienced by Ph.D. students to create new ventures. Furthermore, they also have allowed us to explore the importance of complementary professional and technical training in entrepreneurial motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature examining university spin-offs is expanding rapidly. While most studies have examined the antecedents of spin-off creation at universities, the impact of spin-offs commercializing university research cannot be properly assessed without considering how these firms develop, grow, and perform over time. This study provides a systematic review of a recent research stream addressing the development, growth, and performance of university spin-offs. By critically analyzing 105 research papers published since 2000, this paper makes two main contributions. First, we present a conceptual framework outlining the variety of outcomes used in the literature to assess the development, growth and performance of university spin-offs, as well as the determinants of these outcomes at different levels of analysis. Second, we critically assess gaps in the extant literature and discuss promising directions for future research. We conclude that the university spin-off phenomenon provides an excellent empirical context for conducting research that contributes to more general theoretical discussions related to entrepreneurship, innovation and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge produced by academic scientists has been identified as a potential key driver of technological progress. Recent policies in Europe aim at increasing commercially orientated activities in academe. Based on a sample of German scientists across all fields of science, we investigate the importance of academic patenting. Our findings suggest that academic involvement in patenting results in a citation premium, as academic patents appear to generate more forward citations. We also find that in the European context of changing research objectives and funding sources since the mid-1990s, the “importance” of academic patents declines over time. We show that academic entrants have patents of lower “quality” than academic incumbents but they did not cause the decline, since the relative importance of patents involving academics with an existing patenting history declined over time as well. Moreover, a preliminary evaluation of the effects of the abolishment of the “professor privilege” (the German counterpart of the US Bayh-Dole Act) reveals that this legal disposition led to an acceleration of this apparent decline. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we analyze whether venture capital (VC) firms have a bias against investment in academic spin-offs based on empirical evidence from the micro- and nanotechnology sector in the UK. We also investigate the characteristics of academic spin-offs to capture the differences in their ability to attract VC funding. Finally, we examine whether the propensity to invest in such kinds of new ventures varies between private and public VC firms. The results of our regression analyses on a sample of 247 new ventures (123 academic spin-offs and 124 other companies) reject the presence of bias in this type of science-based business. They also highlight intellectual property rights, presence of academic–industrial collaborations, scientific reputation of the parent university and type of business model as important factors in the academic spin-off's ability to access VC financing. Furthermore, we show that private VCs devote a weaker attention than public VCs to the university‘s scientific reputation when deciding to finance academic spin-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The performance of new companies coming from the demand side of the semiconductor industry is examined and compared with the performance of entrants coming from the semiconductor industry itself and with other types of entrants. By using a dataset of more than 1000 start-ups founded between 1997 and 2007 around the world, the article shows that start-ups with a background in application sectors survive longer than spin-offs from the semiconductor industry itself or than inexperienced firms founded by people previously active in university or other industries. These results point strongly to the major role of demand not just as a source of innovations, but also as a major driver of entry into an industry and of successful performance of new firms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Copyright of Revista CienciaUAT is the property of Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There are different kinds of knowledge transfer methodologies that have been used between university and industry such as publications, training, contracted research, collaborative research, Intellectual Property (IP) licensing, academic spin-offs etc. Although academia and business world have different perspectives from training purposes and publicly available data sharing to commercial concerns such as trade secrets, profitability and competitiveness; there is indispensable cooperation environment between both sides. Policy instruments, on the other hand, are also have different perspectives for research, trade, profit or not-profit organization establishment and/or management, product approval by sector specific government bodies etc. University – Industry Collaboration contracts shall conform to these policy instruments in terms of technical requirements, financial requirements, roles and responsibility share between partners as well as liabilities. Common recognition for transferring best practices of university – industry collaboration models may be possible, but should have been re-structured so as to conform the regulatory tools and strategic roadmaps as wells as socio-economic concerns of both sides in different regions. Interface organizations such as Technology Transfer Offices' (TTO) have a key role to provide structural link between these parties and appropriate collaboration models for their specific needs as well as simplified tools for all possible collaboration models. In this paper we analyzed the components of university – industry collaboration models which can be simplified from the point of TTO roles and responsibilities. Harmonization and simplification possibilities for university-industry collaboration in terms knowledge transfer channels, strategic roadmaps, socio-economic impact factors and regulatory instruments will be analyzed from the point of Technology Transfer Office as the interface organization between both parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the interplay among three main elements of an entrepreneurial ecosystem: local universities, local financial system, and residents' individual attitudes. Specifically, we study how the local availability of university knowledge interacts with the relative presence of cooperative banks in the local banking industry and with the residents' tendency to behave opportunistically to determine the creation of high-tech ventures in a territory (i.e., Italian provinces). Our insight is that high information asymmetries impede high-tech entrepreneurial ideas based on university knowledge to attract external finance. Cooperative banks, which have trust-based relationships with the local community, are potentially a valuable source of finance for these entrepreneurial ideas, but are restrained by their inherent risk aversion. Accordingly, we argue that university knowledge and local presence of cooperative banks can interact either positively or negatively in determining the creation of high-tech ventures at the local level. We also contend that residents' individual attitudes shape this interaction as trust-based relationships are more valuable in areas where residents tend to behave opportunistically. In the empirical part of the paper, we estimate zero-inflated negative binomial regressions where the dependent variable is the number of new high-tech ventures established in 792 province-industry pairs in the period 2012-2014. In line with our reasoning, we find that in provinces where residents tend to behave opportunistically, the relative presence of cooperative banks magnifies the positive effect of university knowledge on high-tech entrepreneurship. Conversely, this effect is negligible in provinces with less opportunistic residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the metaphor of entrepreneurial ecosystem has become popular in academia, industry and government, one aspect is almost neglected, the role of universities. In particular, there is a paucity of studies that examine the governance of universities in relation to their engagement within the ecosystem. This paper relates for the first time the governance structure of universities to their capacity to foster the establishment of academic spin-offs. Thanks to a regulatory change imposing to Italian State universities the enrollment of lay members (i.e., external directors) in their board of directors, we can observe their appointment as an exogenous shock. We find that, while half of the universities appoint the minimum required number of lay members, others appoint more, up to creating board of directors where only the rector is not external. Moreover, there is a strong variety in the type of experiential capital that these lay members bring to universities. While some are entrepreneurs or managers of private firms, others are local stakeholders, such as lawyers or members of foundations or chambers of commerce. Such variance is reflected in the stimulus they exert on the creation of spin-offs. Using a regression discontinuity design on a sample of 1234 spin-offs from 66 universities, our longitudinal study of 1122 university-year observations shows that the rate of establishment of technology spin-offs increases more when more entrepreneurs are appointed. Local stakeholders in the university's board of directors, by contrast, are associated with increased establishments of service-oriented spin-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent call has urged to broaden the conceptualization of university entrepreneurship in order to appreciate the heterogeneity of contexts and actors involved in the process of entrepreneurial creation. A gap still persists in the understanding of the variety of ventures generated by different academic stakeholders, and the relationships between these entrepreneurial developments and university missions, namely, teaching and research. This paper addresses this particular gap by looking at how university teaching and research activities influence universities' entrepreneurial ventures such as academic spin-offs and graduate start-ups. Empirically, we analyse the English higher education sector, drawing on institutional data at the university level. First, we explore the ways in which teaching and research activities are configured, and secondly, we examine how such configurations relate to academic spin-offs and graduate start-ups across different universities over time. Our findings suggest, first, that the evolution of USOs and graduate start-ups exhibit two different pathways over time; and second, that teaching and research both affect entrepreneurial ventures but their effect is different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms are emerging into a knowledge-processing and knowledge-producing industry. Universities contribute to the creation of KIBS firms through university spin-offs (USOs), which represent an opportunity to boost knowledge spillovers from university to industry thanks to their cutting-edge research knowledge, consolidated research experience and well-developed interactive learning processes. The study of the growth of the KIBS USOs is needed to better understand whether these entrepreneurial ventures represent strategic elements of regional innovation systems and economic growth, distinguishing them from the other USOs in terms of growth. The paper explores whether KIBS firms grow more than non-KIBS firms. Using a sample of 1394 Italian and Spanish USOs over the period 2005-2013, the results show that being a KIBS firm has a positive effect on the growth of Spanish USOs, whereas the same does not hold for Italian USOs. Some relevant policies and practical implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of studies regarding the impact of parent-child relationships on the growth of academic spin-offs (ASOs). The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the presence of the parent university can affect a new venture's ability to create value after the spin-off is founded. We analyze the engagement of parent universities by examining their different roles in ownership structures and on boards of directors, and we test theoretical hypotheses using a sample of 194 Italian ASOs. Overall, our findings suggest that "neither absent nor too present" is the strategy that the parent university should adopt to support the growth of its spin-offs. These findings contribute to extending the parent-child approach to studies of ASO performance. We provide suggestions for ownership and board composition decisions after spin-off to help universities configure ex ante appropriate actions for the growth of new ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University Spin-Offs (USOs) are actively involved in the knowledge spillover process and fully integrated in the regional innovation systems. Drawing on the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship and using a multilevel approach of analysis, we explore whether the region's knowledge spillover and the firm's absorptive capacity jointly determine the innovative performance of USOs. At regional level, technological spillovers, production spillovers, and human capital spillovers have been considered. The results from a cross-national panel sample of 401 and 711 Spanish and Italian USOs, over the period 2005–13 and located in twenty-two administrative regions, show that only the production spillovers have a significant positive effect on the USO's innovative activity. Firm-specific characteristics are important for explaining USOs' innovation. More specifically, firm age has a negative effect, while firm size seems to have a positive effect. Additionally, USOs active in high-tech sectors seem to perform better in their innovation activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews evidence of the impact of entrepreneurship on job creation, gender and race discrimination, university spin-offs, growth, economic geography, finance and the public sector. It defines entrepreneurship, corrects some conventional wisdoms about it and discusses policy implications of the evidence on its determinants and effects. The article suggests that the distinctive nature of entrepreneurship raises theoretical, empirical and policy issues that the existing literature has not even begun to address to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian government policy aims to exploit university–industry research collaboration to transform the nation from a 'lucky' country enjoying the riches of agribusiness and resource exploitation, to a 'clever' country, exporting ingenuity and innovation globally. The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program has operated for more than a quarter of a century, but successive modifications demonstrate an inherent tension between two governance narratives pertaining to university–industry collaboration. This brief discussion looks at how the gradual privileging of one of these two narratives over time could potentially compromise genuine innovation‐producing collaboration. Policy makers therefore need to find ways to reconcile these two narratives. CRC‐Projects, while endeavouring to kick‐start Australian innovation, may in fact produce only incremental change instead of the desired paradigm‐changing, and thus wealth‐creating, innovation with export potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to analyze the process of academic spin‐off creation, identifying the barriers to suggest how to overcome them. For this purpose, a case study method was adopted, and as data‐collecting instruments, several in‐depth interviews and documentary analysis were used from three academic spin‐offs. The empirical evidence captures the different views of the founding researchers of the academic spin‐offs, the researching lecturers in the department creating the spin‐offs and the manager of the technology transfer office at the Portuguese university studied here. The results show that the different perceptions of barriers are seen to be solved through an internal strategy within the university. The findings also show that applied research should be valued in assessing lecturers, as it contributes, not only to the link with industry, and therefore to regional development, but also to universities' sustainability, overcoming the lack of financial support as a result of constant budget cuts. The contact networks resulting from universities' links with the different stakeholders will benefit the spin‐offs themselves, facilitating their survival in the first years of their life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a case study about location and migration patterns of university spin-offs. In this case study 1179 spin-offs of the University of Twente in the eastern part of The Netherlands have been identified and classified according to the definition of Pirnay et al. (2003) into four different types. These spin-offs have been longitudinally tracked throughout their existence, so that developments and migration patterns can be observed. There are interesting differences between different types of spin-offs in terms of their location: The spin-offs that received more explicit support from the university (for example in terms of coaching, providing of finance, IP protection, introduction into networks etc.) are more likely to stay in the region Twente, compared to the spinoffs of which the entrepreneur only got some implicit support (for example a general entrepreneurship course or maybe got in touch with inspiring entrepreneurs from existing spin-offs). Another issue explored in this paper is the often mentioned "brain drain" of spin-offs from non-core regions, as an analogy of brain drain of higher educated people from such regions. Even though firms in general are less mobile than people, it is indeed striking to see differences in firm growth in number of employees, among companies which migrate from economic non-core regions to core-regions. Migrating spin-offs from Twente to large agglomerations in The Netherlands grow on average three times faster than companies that stay in the region of origin. Still, knowledge intensive patent-based spin-offs tend to stay close to the parent university, likely because of knowledge spill-overs from the university. These findings can help university administrators to increase effectiveness of their entrepreneurship support systems, by investing in supporting different types of spin-offs with access to regional business networks, to help also less visible and lower tech spin-offs to root more in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effectiveness of public financing programmes for university spin-offs (USOs) in their seed stage. These ventures often identify groundbreaking innovations which are not commercialised due to financing problems. USOs show characteristics which expose them even more to the typical financing gap ventures face and for which public programmes aim to provide relief. We test on a sample of 127 German USOs whether these ventures’ characteristics increase the selection for public programmes and whether these positively affect the ventures’ development. The results indicate that only certain characteristics of USOs are decisive for receiving public support. However, the supported spin-offs have an increased likelihood of facing financial difficulties after the phase of support and do not have a higher investment readiness for finding an external investor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic spin-off companies have attracted the attention of public policy, universities, and research technology organizations as the most effective mechanism for research commercialization and technology transfer from research institutions and universities. Spin-offs can be considered intermediators in the market for ideas as spin-off development models may contemplate mergers and acquisitions with established companies. This paper follows a mixed method approach and explores both primary and secondary data, as well as the complementarity of two analytical units (academic spin-off case studies and technology assessment discussions) in an action-based study with different research groups to capture the pre-spin-off stage rationale. The paper proposes a framework to describe the micro-foundations of the generation of academic spin-offs. Considering the concepts of technology intermediation, the framework contextualizes the market for ideas and takes a process view of innovation. The fragmented and distributed R&D chain provides insight into efficiency in technology and technological knowledge commercialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for innovation and the ability to transfer knowledge to society and industry are essential for the development of current economy. In this sense, universities play a crucial role in this mission, and university spin-offs have become one of the most popular mechanisms of academic knowledge transfer. The purpose of this paper is to perform a literature review in the field of university spin-offs. The adopted methodology starts by creating a conceptual map of the various research areas around university spin-offs, followed by the identification of the most predominant studies in the field taking into account the number of citations. The findings indicate that the main explored dimensions in the university spin-offs research include the process of technology transfer, the role of university in the society, the regional context of the university and the impact of university spin-offs considering several dimensions. On the other side the least explored dimensions include the analysis of the founders' background, and the establishment of public policies to support the activities of university spin-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During their early development, academic spin-off projects are embedded in the context of research institutions. However, knowledge is still lacking on whether the influence of university structures on spin-off projects or the need for resources and the initial setting of these projects vary across research disciplines or university departments. To enhance our understanding of the development of spin-off projects, it is necessary to identify strategies focusing on the specific characteristics of spin-off projects within a single research institution. In our study, we therefore address interactions of spin-off projects with several factors within one university, based on spin-off projects from 2007 to 2013. We inductively derive four types of spin-off projects that interact differently with the different factors and the university. By concentrating on the specific needs of each type, we can provide a framework allowing to identify spin-off needs and to implement target-oriented support mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades research into the different aspects of technology transfer has grown significantly that has taken in the main a macro perspective. This research has created a body of knowledge and an evidence base that has contributed original insights in developing the field and also has shaped policymaking and practice. Within the field there is a growing focus on meso and micro aspects of technology transfer and a growing interest in for example role individual actors such as scientists, principal investigators policy makers, TTO actors, supporting institutions and functions such as universities, professional research organizations, technology and knowledge transfer offices. This research is unearthing fine-grained nuances and insights that provide further evidence of how technology transfer activities are shaped and evolve in different geographical and organizational contexts. The purpose of this special issue is to provide a further understanding of macro, meso and micro perspectives of technology transfer and to provide an agenda for further research that blends these multi-level perspectives of technology transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic spin-offs’ entrepreneurial teams generally concentrate high levels of research and development experience while they are often found lacking in commercial skills. This prompts the integration of surrogate entrepreneurs (practitioners) but the literature questions the effectiveness of these artificially created teams. We argue that faultline theory applied to this context of different identity-based subgroups in a team can provide important insight, and complement the traditional approaches to top team diversity such as upper echelons theory. Our research compares the impact of the three main possible academic spin-off entrepreneurial team configurations on the two principal success-related tasks, innovation and sales, and considers the role important stakeholders, such as public research institutions and industrial partners, can have. In a sample of 164 academic spin-offs, we show that certain configurations are more suited to certain objectives and that faultline theory does indeed contribute to better our understanding of the entrepreneurial teams’ outcomes. Furthermore, the expectations one might have with regard to the extended entrepreneurial team as a possible remedy for weak core team configurations are not supported by our data. Implications for theory and practice are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, universities in many countries are encouraged to take their research products to the next level by translating them into commercialized products to benefit society at large. In doing so, they establish a firm, a so-called University Spin-Off (USO), which specializes in carrying out the mission. A USO is a firm which is established to optimize or commercialize the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of the university. Previous studies into USOs, documented in the extant literature, have mainly focused on investigating the initial process of the USOs' establishment, such as the drivers to initiate the USOs. Only a little attention has been paid to investigate the various drivers affecting the development of the USOs. Studies into the survivability of USOs are relatively limited. The current study is intended to fill this gap. Additionally, the findings are expected to add to the existing literature on USOs, particularly in the context of developing countries. This study aims at identifying the factors affecting the USOs' survival. We used the resource-based view and contingency theory to identify and understand the various factors (internal and external) that might affect a USO's survivability. Data for this study were collected through a survey. From the literature, we identified ten relevant factors for a USO's survivability and 41 items to operationalize them, which we then used to develop a questionnaire. The factors are the USO's business orientation, human resources' reputation, product innovation, business plan, business models' innovation, social networks, export activities, capital access, government support, and the business's incubator. The data were collected from 111 USOs established by 14 universities located in five big cities in Indonesia. The survey was conducted from February until May 2017. Before performing the regression analysis, we deployed a factor analysis to validate the instruments and found that all the 41 items were valid and fell into ten component factors. The analysis found that there were only two factors which significantly affected the USO's survivability: Its human resources' reputation and social networks. These findings lead us to a conclusion that building a good reputation and maintaining its social networks are very important to ensure the survivability of a USO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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