Individual and joint effect of patenting and exporting on the university spin-offs’ survival

Abstract

University spin-offs (USOs) have become a common way to transfer new knowledge to society and create value, boosting economic growth. While innovative and export activities have been extensively researched as survival drivers in the organizational literature, the joint effects of both activities on firm survival has often been ignored, especially in the analysis of the USOs' survival. Using a sample of 498 Spanish USOs over the period 2005 to 2013, this paper explores the simultaneous effect of innovation and exports on the USOs' survival by applying event analysis techniques through the Cox proportional hazards model. The results reveal that patenting becomes a risky activity, particularly on early stages, when USOs have a weak resource base, which increase the failure chances. However, exports have a positive effect on the USOs’ survival. At the same time, exporting reduces the failure chances of the innovative USOs, which means that competing on international markets can counterbalance the potential risks of patenting.