Performance Of Academic Spin-offs Research Articles

The Role of Higher Education Institutions and Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Creation and Development of Academic Spinoffs

Academic spinoffs have received great attention in recent years as a means of transferring the knowledge generated by the research activities of higher education institutions (HEIs). Despite the contribution identified by the literature, there remains a lack of empirical evidence substantiating how the creation of academic spinoffs is enabled by entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and HEIs. This study theorises on the relevance of EO within the context of universities and how such an orientation may drive the founding and development of academic spinoffs. Based on a qualitative study, with 15 interviews from university rectors/presidents, faculty/school deans, degree program directors at Portuguese public HEIs, and founders of spinoffs, the results generate two relevant insights: (i) EO is relevant to the creation, growth, and performance of academic spinoffs, and (ii) personal fulfilment, the transfer of knowledge acquired in HEIs and the search for economic independence represent the main motivations for the creation of academic spinoffs. The findings are discussed to highlight their implications for theory, practice and policy-making.

Entrepreneurial team heterogeneity and performance of academic spin-offs: a pre and postfoundation analysis

ABSTRACT 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.

Publish and Flourish? Academic Goals and the Performance of Academic Spin-Offs

Publish and Flourish? Academic Goals and the Performance of Academic Spin-Offs

Do academic spin-offs outperform young innovative companies? A comparison of survival rates and growth

PurposeThis article investigates the distinctive characteristics and the performance of academic spin-offs within young innovative companies (YICs) supported by public regional agencies. Considering that academic spin-offs are characterized by high intensity in innovation and technology transfer, we raise the issue of their performance relative to other YICs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors focus on YICs which receive support from public or semi-public institutions at the early stage of their development as a reward for their innovative business ideas. The study is performed in two steps. First, the authors estimate the growth of the academic spin-offs within a set of YICs supported for fewer than 5 years. This estimation is based on data gathered in 2014. Second, the authors investigate the survival of these supported YICs with the Cox proportional hazards model, 5 years later, at the end of 2019.FindingsResults reveal that academic spin-offs are more able to capture resources in the early stages: These firms have more patents, more external funding and higher increases in the number of employees. The authors also demonstrate that academic spin-offs have the highest survival rates.Research limitations/implicationsThe drawback of the studies on ASOs is the limited sample. The main issue is related to survival analysis. Limitation of the sample sizes precludes from in-depth survival analyses, which may highlight fundamental differences in the development patterns of the firm.Practical implicationsThe study’s results provide evidence on how the identity of academic spin-offs based on technology transfer act as a positive signal to obtain legitimacy. It is of particular interest for entrepreneurs who can rely on trust provided by their parent institution to engage in negotiations with different stakeholders. Moreover, results give insights to policymakers on the usefulness to invest on academic spin-offs because of its outperforming results.Originality/valueThe results provide important insights for designing, conducting and monitoring policies that favor innovation. Moreover, it demonstrates to universities, research institutions and entrepreneurs engaged in technology transfer the economic and social usefulness of their approach.

An empirical analysis of the relationship between university investments in Technology Transfer Offices and academic spin‐offs

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of university Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in contributing to the creation and the performance of academic spin‐offs (ASOs). More specifically, it investigates the relationship between resources invested in TTOs in term of employees and the creation and growth of ASOs. The empirical analysis refers to Italy, where since 1999 academicians have been allowed to be actively involved in setting up companies for the ‘industrial use of research’. We used data on ASOs and resources invested by Italian universities in TTOs during the 2002–2011 period to investigate if and to what extent such investments contributed to the birth and growth of ASOs. We also controlled the results using information on university and on local context, in which university is located. The results of the empirical analysis show that in a first phase academicians reacted more promptly than universities to the opportunities offered by the new legislation, which may in part be due to the organizational rigidity that characterizes Public Administration in Italy. However, the empirical analysis also shows that after this initial phase the size of the TTOs (in terms of employees) has had a positive influence on the number of new ASOs (i.e. birth), but not on the performance of ASOs (i.e. growth), which is influenced by both long‐term investments in research (i.e. the quality of research results) and other variables linked to the regional and national contexts, such as the presence of incubators or the level of economic development. Our results regard a widely studied topic and should provide incremental findings for the community of entrepreneurship scholars and relevant implications for policy makers and TTO managers.

Do the Innovation Index of the Regions and the Sectors of Belonging Affect the Performance of the ASOs?

The considerable economic contribution of academic spin-offs (ASOs) has drawn numerous scholars’ attention to explore the factors that influence their development (Hossinger, 2020). The growing attention on these issues has led researchers to investigate the drivers and success factors that have the greatest impact on the performance of ASOs.This paper has been designed with a dual purpose. On the one hand, the document aims to examine how much a region's innovation index reflects positively on the performance of ASOs. On the other hand, the paper also examines in which sectors the impact of innovation on the performance of ASOs emerges most. The research hypotheses of these paintings were explored in an empirical study of 1,007 Italian spin-offs over a time range from 2010 to 2019. To carry out the analysis, a panel model with fixed effects was used, with an unbalanced dataset.

Economic and Societal Impact of Academic Spin-Offs: An Emerging Taxonomy with Illustrative Cases

This paper explores the economic and societal impact generated by academic spin-offs (ASOs) - new ventures set up to commercialize scientific research. Despite strong beliefs in the ability of ASOs to spur economic and social progress, the literature on academic entrepreneurship has mainly looked at the direct financial performance of ASOs. Less is known about the extent of and types of impacts ASOs generate outside the firm itself. We analyze a dataset containing more than 4 200 newspaper and media articles covering 316 Norwegian ASOs. Using an inductive grounded theory approach to analyze the above data, we found that the majority of ASOs complemented their commercial sales with some form of impact beyond the firm itself. Based on extant literature and inductive coding, we develop a taxonomy of ASOs by categorizing them on the high or low dimension of the economic and the societal impact they produce. The taxonomy shows four types of firms named: achievers, societals, profiteers and prospectors. This paper focuses on the achievers, societals and profiteers to illustrate the economic and societal impact they generate while the prospectors only have an intended and not yet realized impact. The paper extends the debate about the societal impact of ASOs and offer implications for research and policy.

Can the External Environment Generate Better Economic Performance in Academic Spin-Offs?

The strategic stimulus to economic development is innovation. It was defined by Schumpeter as the commercial or industrial application of something new (product, process, production method). New product developments grew out of process innovation, particularly the development of components made from new materials, and the techniques to produce them the value of process innovation is proportional to the level of output produced by a given firm. Based on this we can distinguish two different life cycles: the life cycle of product technology and life cycle process technology. It’s appropriate to understand if and how long these innovation processes lead to positive economic results. The innovation capabilities are the driver of long-term success. The relation should remain significant beyond short-term earnings or become even greater for earnings of a longer-term. The length of a firm’s innovation cycle appears to be a determinant of the relationship between enhanced innovation capabilities and future earnings. The paper proposes a framework to evaluate the impact of academic spin-offs at the local level. Spin-off creation is the most complex way of commercializing academic research but has the highest potential impact on the local context. We develop a framework that takes into account the direct and indirect impacts of spin-offs. In the empirical part of the paper, we apply this framework to a sample of Italian spin-offs between 2001 and 2017. The empirical analysis shows that measured in quantitative terms, the impact of spin-offs on the local economy is quite small. Using the selected variables, It's possible to affirm that the presence of business incubators represents an element capable of positively influencing the performance of academic spin-offs.

The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Actors and Performance in Different Stages of Evolution of Academic Spinoffs

AbstractThe importance of entrepreneurial ecosystems is accentuated in the academic entrepreneurship context since academic spinoffs (ASOs) must rely on actors from the ecosystem to access resources they lack in order to improve their performance. This study analyzes the impact that actors from social and institutional (university and nonuniversity) contexts in the entrepreneurial ecosystem have on ASO performance in the stage of creation and initial development and in the stage of consolidation. From a sample of 118 ASOs in the initial stage and 47 ASOs in the consolidation stage, the results indicate that social and institutional contexts improve the performance of ASOs in both phases of development, although the relevance of each context varies with the stage. In the creation and initial development stage, the institutional context affects the ASOs’ performance to a greater extent, while the influence of the social context is less strong. Science parks from the institutional context are the most relevant actors in this phase. In the consolidation phase, social context is the most relevant for improving the performance of ASOs, with the venture capitalist being the actor that exerts more influence. With respect to the institutional context, performance is only affected by the nonuniversity context in this stage.

Neither absent nor too present: the effects of the engagement of parent universities on the performance of academic spin-offs

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.

Academic spin-offs’ team heterogeneity: an exploratory analysis on growth performance

Purpose of the paper: The present study seeks to shed light on the relationship between team background diversity and growth performance in academic spinoffs. Academic spin-offs are an important means to exploit and transfer the results of academic and scientific research. However, empirical investigations highlight that they tend to have more homogeneous teams and lower performance than independent new ventures. Methodology: We focus on the disciplinary background of academic and nonacademic members in order to assess the team heterogeneity. The sample is composed of 67 academic spin-offs. Hierarchical regression analysis has been used for our exploratory purpose. Findings: The results show that the functional diversity affects positively firm growth and this impact is significantly higher in the case of corporate venture backed spin-offs. Moreover, our findings suggest that the integration of market-oriented skills and business-related networks and competencies through the presence of CVC strengthen the relationship between heterogeneity and performance. Implications: A growing body of literature shows that functional diversity is more likely to have positive effects than demographical diversity. Our results confirm the key role of a balanced composition between academic and non-academic profiles. Furthermore, this functional heterogeneity can be fruitfully extended by external market capabilities conveyed by the presence of a corporate venture capital. Originality of the paper: This exploratory study is a first attempt to fill the gap on the relationship between diversity and performance. The originality of the analysis lies in deepening the interaction between team functional background and corporate venture in assessing the performance of academic spin-offs.

Key Success Factors Positively Affecting Organizational Performance of Academic Spin-Offs

Universities create academic spin-offs (ASOs) as a strategy to market innovations produced through research. By their nature, ASOs are exposed to risky endeavors and often fail in achieving an adequate level of performance. In this paper, we focus on performance generation in ASOS. By way of a literature review, we contribute with the identification of nine factors associated with positive performance in ASOS: championed start-up, heterogeneity of founders’ skills, access to funding, environmental wealth, networking capital, relative size, trustworthiness, innovativeness and motivation for venturing. The paper describes and discusses the performance factors and suggests implications for research to further study performance in ASOS.