Academic Start-ups Research Articles

Can Academic Startups be Broad? How Problem Formulation Shapes Market Breadth Among Startups in AI

Can Academic Startups be Broad? How Problem Formulation Shapes Market Breadth Among Startups in AI

Academic Start-ups: International Experiences

Academic Start-ups: International Experiences

Startup grants and the development of academic startup projects during funding: Quasi-experimental evidence from the German ‘EXIST – Business startup grant’

Public support programs for (academic) startups are an important component of innovation and technology policy. There are many types of startup policy instrument, one of which is supporting prospective founders with startup grants. The present study contributes to the literature by examining the effectiveness of a specific startup grant entitled ‘EXIST – Business Startup Grant’. This measure is Germany’s largest public startup support program and aims to increase the number of technology-oriented and knowledge-based academic startups. The present research investigates the extent to which products of funded startups, the projects’ business planning, the founders’ skills, the degree of networking, and the uptake of external funding evolve over the duration of the grant. Evidence of the effects on these variables is generated by means of a pipeline-based comparison group design. Findings indicate that the startup grant contributes substantially to the development of the products and the business planning of the funded startups, moderately increases their degree of networking and their uptake of external funding, and slightly improves the skills of the founding team during the funding period. Several robustness checks – including a replication by another type of research design, namely a pre-post comparison – strongly support the findings. Hence it is very likely that the program advances startups in their development and thus contributes to later economic success.

Transferring Scientific Knowledge to Academic Startups: the Moderating Effect of the Dual Identity of Academic Entrepreneurs on Forming Knowledge Depth and Knowledge Breadth

Transferring Scientific Knowledge to Academic Startups: the Moderating Effect of the Dual Identity of Academic Entrepreneurs on Forming Knowledge Depth and Knowledge Breadth

Institutional logics and founders' identity orientation: Why academic entrepreneurs aspire lower venture growth

This study examines how the identity orientation of founders, i.e., the extent to which they define themselves in terms of their relationships to others and to social groups, is imprinted by their professional logic and influences their ambitions for venture growth. We draw on existing insights regarding the Darwinian, Communitarian, and Missionary orientation of entrepreneurs and on interviews with 29 founders to develop our hypotheses, which we then test in a sample of 58 academic and 113 non-academic founders that participated in a venture competition. We argue that, compared to non-academic institutional logics, academic logics are tied to a stronger Communitarian and Missionary orientation and a weaker Darwinian orientation in founders. A stronger Darwinian orientation values venture growth, whereas a stronger Communitarian orientation appraises the benefit of the technology for a restricted set of people at the expense of such growth ambitions. A stronger Missionary orientation values welfare maximization for society which may to some degree entail higher growth aspirations. We argue and empirically confirm that these identity orientations explain why academic founders hold lower growth aspirations for their start-up than non-academic founders. Our findings can at least partially clarify why academic start-ups do not grow according to expectancies. They theoretically advance our insights in academic entrepreneurship and founders' growth aspirations while also extending the literature on founders' identity orientation.

The Resource-Related Determinants of Academic Entrepreneurship: A Structural Equation Modeling Meta-

In this study covering 156 articles representing 76,835 observations, we meta-analyze the relationship between three distinct groups of resources and four outcomes of academic entrepreneurship. Using a resource orchestration perspective, we find that TTO resources have the strongest relationship with the number of licenses executed and academic startups created. Regional resources have a stronger relationship with the number of licenses executed than university resources. In addition, certain configurations of resources have a complementary effect on licensing revenues, while one combination has a substitutive effect on startup performance. We contribute to the literature by offering a robust resource-based account of academic entrepreneurship

Human Resources in Start-Ups: Expert Interviews with Managers on the Transition of Start-Ups from Academic to Private

This study investigates the changes in team composition in four academic high-tech start-ups and spin-offs. These companies were initiated on academic grounds and had to undergo transition in order to act as private companies. For human resources of all kinds this goes along with a change in the requirements of their skills and their work. This pilot study focused on four high-tech start-ups from Germany and Slovakia that are active and still in transition in the year 2021. Data was obtained with qualitative research methods from managers that were in charge during the transition of the company. During expert interviews, the researchers used semi-structured questionnaires in order to gather data from the managers on particular aspects of spin-off team member skills and requirements. The qualitative results obtained from the managers were compared, showing that with fundamental changes in the business objectives of the company the required management skills and team composition changes from an academic skills portfolio towards a private-sector portfolio. Likewise, a change in the human resource hiring strategy of the spin-offs was found in that stage. However, research also showed that spin-offs seem to undergo two transition phases during their way from an academic research group towards a company based on free market principles.

Exploring Critical Factors for Academic Start-ups towards the Development of Technological Entrepreneurship: Preliminary Research Findings

Exploring Critical Factors for Academic Start-ups towards the Development of Technological Entrepreneurship: Preliminary Research Findings

How to Develop Collaboration in Drug Development Process: The Role of Professional Service Firms

The innovation chain of the pharmaceutical industry is more and more complex.  In particular, a new type of players, the start-ups founded by researchers (Academic Start-ups) have proven to be particularly effective in the first steps of exploring new, radically innovative technologies. These small start-ups miss the financial resources and the industrial experience necessary to embark in the later stage of technologies’ development. To overcome these limits, what academic start-ups require the most is a collaborative linkage with large biotech and pharma companies. To such end, Business Development Professionals are offering their services to academic start-ups, to set up a collaborative linkage with potential partners. Our article investigates the process of engagement between Academic Start-ups and Business Development Professionals and in particular, we focus on the factors that influence collaboration between the two actors. In order to investigate the development process of collaboration we conducted an exploratory study trough the submission of a semi-structured questionnaire covering different aspects of the engagement process to a sample of business professionals. The study provide first evidences about the main factors that prevent the development of collaborations and provides some suggestions to overcome the challenges that both parts found in the collaboration process.

Academic Entrepreneurship Education: Does Gender Matter?

Academic entrepreneurship education aims to train and raise awareness amongst students about entrepreneurial activity, thereby increasing the number of academic start-ups and spin-offs. However, as yet, there are very few findings on the gender-specific differences amongst potential entrepreneurs. Building on the current state of research, gender-specific differences in the form of various different components of entrepreneurial competence are examined. This study focuses in particular on (1) entrepreneurial knowledge, (2) domain-specific interest in entrepreneurship, (3) interest in leadership roles, and (4) entrepreneurial and (5) intrapreneurial intention. Based on an online survey of 281 students of a German and Czech university, the mean differences show that there are statistically significant lower values for female students than for male students for all the variables investigated, that is with exception to intrapreneurial intention. These findings underline the need for targeted promotion of female entrepreneurship within the context of academic entrepreneurship education.

Lab, Gig or Enterprise? How scientist-inventors form nascent startup teams

The entrepreneurial teams that form around university-based technologies influence whether and how those technologies are commercialized. Past research has emphasized the roles of external actors, such as technology transfer officers or investors, in managing the evolution of academic startup teams. But less is known about how individual scientist-inventors form their initial teams. To explore that process, we conducted longitudinal interviews with nine scientist-inventors leading nascent startups at major U.S. universities. Our analyses revealed that these scientists were working with a more extensive set of commercially-relevant knowledge and network connections than past research has accounted for. In fact, the scientists had their own “lay theories” of academic entrepreneurship that encompassed team-specific ideas as well as broader ideas about how their technologies ought to be commercialized. We identified four “design principles” capturing key variations in what the scientists hoped to achieve through their teams: control, scope, entitativity, and dynamism. We further found these principles clustered into three distinct commercialization models, which we called Lab, Gig, and Enterprise. Finally, we elaborated the models' implications for the scientists' team formation strategies, the sources through which they identified new members, and their approaches to dealing with administrators and investors. Our findings change what we know about nascent academic startups by showing how scientists play a critical internal role alongside, prior to, and sometimes instead of the external drivers of team formation whose roles have been more extensively documented.

Different founders, different venture outcomes: A comparative analysis of academic and non-academic startups

What role do differences in founders' occupational backgrounds play in new venture performance? Analyzing a novel dataset of 2998 founders creating 1723 innovative startups in biomedicine, we find that the likelihood and hazard of achieving a liquidity event are lower for academic than for non-academic startups. However, academic startups produce as many patents and receive as much funding as non-academic startups, suggesting that the observed differences in achieving a liquidity event are not driven by differential invention performance. Exploiting heterogeneity among academic startups, we also find that differences between professor and student startups do not explain academic startups' comparatively low performance on the exit market vis-à-vis non-academic startups. Yet, startups founded by superstar professors perform similarly to non-academic startups on the exit market for new ventures, and better than startups founded by highly productive professors but without external certification.

Pre-Entry Knowledge of Entrepreneurs and Market Strategy

I investigate how and why the sources of entrepreneurial knowledge, namely prior experience that founders gained in academic, user, and employee settings, may affect market strategy of new ventures. While prior studies did not examine the heterogeneity of pre-entry knowledge in predicting strategy and performance of startups, I argue that each firm type possesses a distinct comparative knowledge advantage regarding key elements of the industry’s technological system, thereby leading to firm differences in technological and value chain positioning. I assembled the quantitative and qualitative data of 173 prosthetic startups created between 1991-2017. My results indicate that academic startups were likely to choose component-level products based on nascent technology, while employee startups were likely to choose finished products based on established technology. Also, user startups were likely to choose niche, component-level products leveraging established technology. Through qualitative data, I interpret my findings to suggest that entrepreneurs’ strategic choices are constrained by their initial strengths and the cost of acquiring additional resources. Together, I suggest that entrepreneurial strategy can be better understood by considering the interaction of the types of entrepreneurial knowledge and the industry’s technological system.

Information technology and eHealth to improve patient safety

Patient safety is akey element of high-quality healthcare. Digitalization, new eHealth applications and data-based algorithms have high potential to make asignificant contribution. This article presents current technological developments along asimplified patient journey from emergency medical triage, diagnosis and therapy to follow-up. The technical interventions are highly diverse and mostly accompanied by alow level of evidence, since most of them are from single academic projects or start-ups. Although there should be no doubt that technology is an important instrument for increasing patient safety, new technologies also involve new risks. Furthermore, technical measures must always be embedded in an overall concept of organizational measures, adequate education, training and accompanying research in order to generate the highest possible benefits and lowest possible risks.

Different Founders, Different Firms: A Comparative Analysis of Academic and Non-academic Startups

Different Founders, Different Firms: A Comparative Analysis of Academic and Non-academic Startups

Towards Digitalization in Academic Start-ups - An Attempt to Classify Start-up Projects of the Gruendungsgarage

Founded in 2013 as a playground for implementation-oriented start-up ideas, the Gruendungsgarage is now an established academic start-up accelerator and an integral part of the regional start-up scene. Starting with a brief in-troduction to the program of the Gruendungsgarage as a best practice example with five years of experience in academic entrepreneurial education, a model with a practical-oriented focus for classifying the degree of digitalization in start-up projects is presented. Successful start-ups and promising start-up projects from the Gruendungsgarage are classified according to their degree of digitalization and illustrated by examples. Finally, implications for the practice in engineering education on entrepreneurship are derived and suggestions for future research are identified.

Public research and the innovation performance of new technology based firms

Assessing the role of publicly funded scientific research in entrepreneurial ecosystems is of great interest for science and entrepreneurship policy. Knowledge from academic research flows into the private sector through publications, patents, and researcher mobility as well as through direct interactions between founders and researchers at public research institutions (PRIs). New technology-based firms (NTBFs) are generally praised for high innovativeness despite their resource constraints and liability of newness. This study therefore investigates the impact of direct interactions with PRIs on NTBFs’ innovation success. In a large sample of NTBFs in Germany, we find that those firms engaging in such knowledge interactions are more likely to introduce new products and services to the market. The strength of this association, however, depends on interaction persistency, internal R&D and the founders’ academic backgrounds. Non-academic start-ups benefit more from continuous informal interactions if they pursue own R&D, which suggests that absorptive capacity matters. In academic start-ups, higher intensities of both formal and informal interactions are associated with greater innovation likelihood. Moreover, continuous informal interactions complement formal ones in the absence of own R&D activity.

University as New Entrepreneurial Finance Player. What Role?

The European strategy is to promote new businesses as a real driver of economic growth, but also to support their growth and resilience. A typical kind of new business is the academic start-up they can play a strategical role on the local economy. Our paper investigates the academic start-ups strengths and weaknesses and the role that university can promote to support them in value creation. The authors tested the research question on a sample of start-ups of university of Pisa. Findings highlight important academic start-ups financial and not-financial goals useful to dialogue with entrepreneurial finance players. The research show also some vulnerabilities. In the conclusion, the role of university as new entrepreneurial player is discussed.

Creating entrepreneurial universities in an emerging economy: Evidence from Brazil

The concept of the entrepreneurial university aims to promote the transfer of academic knowledge to companies and foster socio-economic development. The first wave occurred at pioneering universities in the United States like MIT and Stanford, defining a university-wide patent policy, establishing a technology transfer policy, setting up university-industry partnerships and churning out new companies. The second wave occurred in Western Europe, with ivory tower universities transforming themselves into entrepreneurial institutions supporting academic entrepreneurs. In terms of newly emerging economies making up the third wave, the promotion of academic entrepreneurship is high on their political agendas and, although the actual pioneering phase has already begun, it is not clear as yet which policies or structures are needed to foster the effective transfer of academic knowledge and the incubation of start-up firms, and eventually contribute to socio-economic development. In this sense, the aim of this study is to identify potential activities and effective policies to encourage the transfer of academic technology in Brazil, being one of the emerging economies. An analytical framework of the entrepreneurial university was constructed based on existing literature, consisting of five dimensions: entrepreneurial perspective, external links, access to university resources, innovation arrangement and scientific research. In an exploratory case study, eighteen interviews were carried out with incubatee-entrepreneurs and the managers of university business incubators in southern Brazil. Although all dimensions were mentioned in the interviews as being important in promoting entrepreneurship, the key finding from our research is that most academic start-ups are based on the entrepreneur's own technologies, rather than on the university's patents. The quality of entrepreneurial training, in addition to being in close contact with applied research, encourages academics to turn their business plans into start-up ventures. To conclude, although the new ventures are not based on academic patents, they are playing a proactive and dynamic role when it comes to socio-economic developments.

Science and industry evolution: evidence from the first 50 years of the German laser industry

Industry evolution is driven by innovation. Scientific research is an important source of innovation-relevant knowledge. To trace its impact on industry evolution, we follow the entry and exit of firms from various backgrounds over the first five decades of the German laser industry. We find that academic startups became increasingly competitive after substantial changes were introduced to the governance of university-industry relationships. Their enhanced performance helps explain why no shakeout in firm numbers has been observed to date. Doctorate-holding inventors contributed to the performance of entrants, indicating that the impact of scientific knowledge on industry evolution goes beyond academic entrepreneurship.