Intrapreneurship activity and access to finance in natural science: Evidence from the UK academic spinoffs

Abstract

Recent research on the intrapreneurial activity at universities has demonstrated that access to finance and firm profits highly depend on the adoption of digital technologies and the stage of growth. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the factors that affect access to finance and profitability of academic spinoffs across different stages of spinoff growth. We distinguish and define an intrapreneurial academic spinoff to argue that the intrapreneur's own development of digital technology, stage of growth, and the field of science represent three boundary conditions to access external finance and gain profitability. Using the data from 89 intrapreneurial academic spinoffs in natural sciences, such as physical sciences and astrophysics, mathematics, chemical sciences, earth and related environmental sciences as well as 660 spinoffs from other fields of science in the United Kingdom over 2015–2019, this paper examined the role of spinoff growth stage and development of digital technologies in access to finance and profitability of this type of spinoffs. The paper offers implications for policymakers, intrapreneurial spinoffs, and university managers.