Research-based Spin-offs Research Articles

The role of research-based spin-offs in innovation ecosystems

The role of research-based spin-offs in innovation ecosystems

The role of research-based spin-offs in innovation ecosystems

The role of research-based spin-offs in innovation ecosystems

Explore or exploit? Unpacking the situational conditions and cognitive mechanisms underlying entrepreneurial learning in the new venture development process

ABSTRACT This study explores when and why entrepreneurs choose entrepreneurial learning strategies that emphasize exploration or exploitation. Most studies have focused on explaining the different characteristics of exploration and exploitation, their performance implications, whether they are complementarities or substitutes and how particular organizational structures can support their coexistence. We apply a process design building on four research-based spinoffs observing how changes in entrepreneurs’ choices of exploration and exploitation occur as they identify and adopt a viable configuration for their ventures. In this study, we develop a theoretical model that reveals the situational conditions and mechanisms underlying entrepreneurs’ learning choices and highlights different knowledge typologies and competence gaps that new venture teams need to fill when dealing with uncertainties and performance errors.

Enablers of exit through trade sale: the case of early-stage research-based spin-offs

A significant share of new technology-based ventures exit through trade sale at an early stage of firm development. While trade sale is an important exit route for entrepreneurs and investors, and a potential source of new innovations and technology for acquiring firms, we have limited knowledge about the factors that help to effectively achieve a trade sale. We employ a unique dataset tracking the population of research-based spin-offs in Norway and conduct in-depth case studies of nine trade sales. Building on 52 interviews and other secondary data, we inductively develop propositions outlining three dimensions that lead to a successful trade sale—potential synergies, credible alternatives, and uncertainty reduction. We show that these enablers of trade sales are not only linked to the focal venture but also related to the idiosyncratic dyad with the buyer, reflecting both the potential for and likelihood of trade sale. Consequently, our study contributes to the literatures on entrepreneurial exit and academic entrepreneurship by mapping the important but under-explored area of trade sale as an exit mode.Plain English SummaryPotential synergies and credible alternatives increase the potential of a research-based spin-offs’ trade sale, but the likelihood of a trade sale depends on how uncertainty reduction is managed. A trade sale is an important exit route for entrepreneurs and investors, and a potential source of new innovations and technology for acquiring firms. Research-based spin-offs are often acquired during their early stages of development by large corporations. We track the population of Norwegian research-based spin-offs and study nine trade sales in depth. Our findings concerning the importance of synergy potential, credible alternatives, and uncertainty reduction have implications for both academic entrepreneurs and potential buyers for how they can complete an exit through trade sale. Since scientific research is critical for society, our findings have implications for policymakers in the form of interesting ideas for influencing trade sales, a potentially important route for commercialization of scientific research.

Corporate spin-offs’ success factors: management lessons from a comparative empirical analysis with research-based spin-offs

Are the success factors of Research-based spin-offs (RBSO) transferable to the context of Corporate spin-offs (CSO)? We posit that certain success factors are independent from the spin-off’s institutional background and are viable for both types of ventures. This study provides comparative, comprehensive and concrete evidence on the performance of both types of entrepreneurial venturing. Our comparative approach, taking in RBSOs and CSOs at the same time, contains a comprehensive set of success factors and provides concrete results in the form of management lessons for spin-offs in general. We apply logistic regression and non-parametric propensity score matching and use data from a RBSO sample and a CSO sample from Germany. We find that factors such as age, starting size, the introduction of regional and national market novelties as well as business contacts with the parent are success factors for both kinds of spin-offs and therefore highly relevant for both types, independent of the context from which they emanate.

Academic entrepreneurship and public research organisations: a conceptual study of the drivers and obstacles of research spin-off creation

In the modern society, universities and research centres are directly involved in the process of country economic growth by spurring product development, by creating new industries, and by contributing to employment and wealth creation. Research based spin offs are often the best way to reach these goals. For this reason, the number of research based firms spurred by Public Research Organisations is remarkably increased in the last years both in United States and in European Countries. On the other hand, this growth is not homogeneously distributed among different countries. According to these considerations, the aim of this paper is to understand which characteristics of public research institutions can influence positively or negatively the rise of research spin offs and which policies the research organisations can adopt to favour the generation of research-based spin-offs.

A spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientation on technological innovativeness: an outlook of universities and research based spin offs

By shifting towards Romer’s (Am Econ Rev 94:1002–1037, 1986) economy and so the spread of knowledge economy, universities started to adopt a collaborative approach with their entrepreneurial ecosystem. They turn out to be risk taker, autonomous, proactive, competitive, and innovative. In a nutshell, they are entrepreneurial oriented with the aim to generate new innovative ventures, known as research-based spin offs. Doubly, this has induced an improvement of technology transfer and the degree of entrepreneurship in the current knowledge economy. However there still is a paucity of studies on the spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientated universities and research-based spin off on technology transfer need to be more explored. Therefore, the article investigates the link between entrepreneurial orientation and such spill overs by offering an outlook of two universities and two research-based spin offs in the United Kingdom. The scope is to provide a deep view of technological innovativeness in a research context, entrepreneurial oriented. Our research suggests that entrepreneurial attitude has become an imperative to succeed in the context where British institutions currently operate. Entrepreneurship brings the necessary technological innovation to the university and its students, which results in better positioning of the university at national and international levels, with the subsequent impact on their ability to attract not only new students and academics but also funding to conduct their research.

Adding the entrepreneurial orientation among the theoretical perspectives to analyse the development of research-based spin-offs

To date, research-based spin-offs (RBSOs) have been studied from an institutional perspective, from an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) or from a resource-based view. Although scholars have expressed an interest in studying RBSOs, nobody has incorporated the three different perspectives into a single integrated model. Therefore, the present article aims to develop a holistic theoretical framework, studying the human, financial, technological and social resources of an RBSO and highlighting whether the EO influences an RBSO during its generation and development phases. A case study from the information and communication technology sector was selected, and data were collected through a structured questionnaire complemented with in-depth and on-site interviews. The holistic framework adopted allowed to highlight the peculiarities of the RBSO: the marked vocation for scientific research, the EO of the founding team and the important role of the parent organization, mostly in supplying intangible assets. The emerged evidence shows how it is possible to generate and develop a successful RBSO, providing useful insights from both academic and managerial viewpoints.

Acquiring Research-Based Spin Offs: A Process Model of Pre-Acquisition Dynamics

Organizations acquire new technology-based firms as a source of new resources and capabilities. While a large part of acquisitions research studies later stage and/or publicly listed entrepreneuria...

Growth factors of research-based spin-offs and the role of venture capital investing

Using a proprietary dataset of 98 German research-based spin-offs (RBSOs) founded between 1997 and 2012, we assess which firm-specific and system-inherent factors are decisive for the spin-offs’ growth drawing on the resource-based view. Specifically, we aim to evaluate whether venture capital-backed RBSOs outperform non venture capital-backed RBSOs and whether a performance difference is explained by venture capitalists’ scouting or coaching capabilities. Our empirical findings detect that a homogeneous educational background of the academic entrepreneurs is positively associated with RBSO growth. A training provided by the parent research organization intended to develop entrepreneurial skills and to establish a network to outside professionals as well as the commercialization of a novel technology have a positive impact on firm growth. Concerning the involvement of venture capitalists, venture capital-backed RBSOs show a superior employment and revenue growth compared to non-venture capital-backed RBSOs. Our results support the view that this superior performance is attributed to venture capitalists’ coaching rather than their scouting capabilities.

Open innovation in the public sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to verify and improve the framework assessing the evolution and importance of the technological, human, social and financial resources of an Indian research-based spin-off (RBSO) throughout its four stages of development by Vohora et al. (2004).Design/methodology/approachThe open innovation (OI) phenomenon is spreading among public organizations. One of the OI practices used by the public research centers to market their technologies is to set up new business entities called RBSOs. Many studies have focused on spin-offs but there are still some gaps. To overcome the existing limitations, the authors built a framework which they tested on three previous case studies.FindingsThe results obtained show how a parent organization and its incubator can play fundamental roles in creating and developing a successful RBSO. This is done by supplying managerial staff and providing access to skills, funds and other material and immaterial resources.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this study are related to the sectoral and geopolitical factors of the single case analyzed. For this reason, the observations that emerge should be supported by other empirical analyses.Originality/valueThe findings of this study can offer a better understanding of the spin-off life to managers, researchers, public organizations and government agencies. They can learn how to improve policies and practices of technology transfer and strengthen the national industrial system.

Growth Factors of Research-based Spin-Offs and the Role of Venture Capital Investing

Using a proprietary dataset of 98 German research-based spin-offs (RBSOs) founded between 1997 and 2012, we assess which firm-specific and system-inherent factors are decisive for the spin-offs’ growth drawing on the resource-based view. Specifically, we aim to evaluate whether venture capital (VC)-backed RBSOs outperform non-VC-backed RBSOs and whether a performance difference is explained by venture capitalists’ scouting or coaching capabilities. Our empirical findings detect that a homogeneous educational background of the academic entrepreneurs is positively associated with RBSO growth. A training provided by the parent research organization intended to develop entrepreneurial skills and to establish a network to outside professionals as well as the commercialization of a novel technology have a positive impact on firm growth. Concerning the involvement of venture capitalists, VC-backed RBSOs show a superior employment and revenue growth compared to non-VC-backed RBSOs. Our results support the view that this superior performance is attributed to venture capitalists’ coaching rather than their scouting capabilities.

Gazelles versus Mice: understanding their characteristics and the specifics of growth as a performance measure for research-based spin-offs

Commercialising knowledge and technologies from public research centres, research-based spin-offs (RBSOs) play a pivotal role for technology transfer and thus contribute to regional development, economic wealth and job creation. Growth, however, is a highly debated and controversial performance measure for small businesses. Analysing the special growth patterns of RBSOs, the existing literature has put forward two extreme forms, Gazelles and Mice, with metaphorical characteristics. Drawing on a database of 177 spin-offs from publicly funded non-university research institutes, we investigate the specifics of those firms with an above-average growth rate and contrast them to their stagnating counterparts, trying to characterise Gazelles and Mice and explain the growth patterns with more detail in order to identify the potential for high growth rates as early as possible.

Business models for research-based spin-offs: the strategic entrepreneurship perspective

The case study focuses on business model design in the context of research-based spin-offs. Drawing from the idea of complementary business models based on the concepts of exploration, exploitation and strategic entrepreneurship (SE), the case study shows how a two-by-two business model was designed for a university-based start-up. The data for the action research-related case study comprise theoretical papers, documents, interviews and a field diary, which were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate how business firms in general and start-ups in particular could benefit from complementary business models based on the basic ideas of SE.

Business models for research-based spin-offs: the strategic entrepreneurship perspective

The case study focuses on business model design in the context of research-based spin-offs. Drawing from the idea of complementary business models based on the concepts of exploration, exploitation and strategic entrepreneurship (SE), the case study shows how a two-by-two business model was designed for a university-based start-up. The data for the action research-related case study comprise theoretical papers, documents, interviews and a field diary, which were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate how business firms in general and start-ups in particular could benefit from complementary business models based on the basic ideas of SE.

Gazelles versus Mice: understanding their characteristics and the specifics of growth as a performance measure for research-based spin-offs

Gazelles versus Mice: understanding their characteristics and the specifics of growth as a performance measure for research-based spin-offs

Towards a better understanding of performance measurements: the case of research-based spin-offs

Although performance measurement has been a prominent topic especially in an entrepreneurial context, researchers struggle to obtain conclusive results. We link this to the fact that the key role of different performance measurements has been neglected and consequently want to fill this gap by contrasting five different performance measures against each other, being: general performance, long-term perspective, technological application, financial indicators and growth. The new perspective we are offering is taking different performance measures into account at the same time and examining whether one specific measurement seems to favor, correlate or stand in some kind of causal relationship with specific exogenous success factors. By investigating the phenomenon in the case of research-based spin-offs (RBSOs), a type of newly founded ventures that is exemplary for an entrepreneurial context, we are offering insights on best performing spin-offs regarding their starting configuration, support mechanism and product-market combination. Drawing on a database of 177 spin-offs from publicly funded non-university research institutes, an analysis via logistic regression showed that each performance measurement shows different results, but the negative effect of push motivation and the positive influencing factors of a high degree of innovation and profound knowledge in assessing the targeted market are accepted success factors independent from the measurement used.

Research-based spin-offs as agents in the entrepreneurial ecosystem

This study investigates research-based spin-off companies (RBSOs) as agents in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Academic and policy research has established that entrepreneurial companies show relatively low growth ambitions and high failure rates, which is a considerable concern to public policy that sees RSBOs as agents of economic development. However, it has also been established that RSBOs fulfill additional functions within entrepreneurial ecosystems, including those leading to knowledge spillover effects. This study uses patterns of growth ambitions among RBSOs to identify types of RSBOs and to define their place in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, linking the types to company characteristics and 7-year survival. The study presents an original data set based on a survey of RBSOs and follow-up investigations establishing the 7-year survival status of the companies. It investigates first the prevalence of growth objectives, secondly their association with strategic choices, and thirdly the relationship of growth objectives and strategic choices with medium-term survival. The findings show that only approximately half of the companies indicate sales growth objectives. However, they also show that most of the companies not indicating immediate growth objectives are aiming to position themselves for future growth or acquisition. Growth ambitions are associated with strategic choices of RBSOs, yet strategic choices are more important in predicting survival, acquisition or exit after 7 years. The diversity of growth ambitions, strategic choices, and long-term trajectories suggests that RBSOs are not a homogenous group of agents, and represent several pathways to the creation of economic growth and knowledge utilization.

The 'privileged witness': advising scientists to start research-based spin-offs

The paper explores how a 'privileged witness' (Wright et al., 2007), that is, a business advisor hired by a university, assists scientists in commercialising their research through research-based spin-offs (RBSOs). Prior research on the key actors of RBSOs has focused on what kind of scientists engage in this activity, what motivates them, and how they learn over time. Less research has been done on the micro-level interaction between scientists and those who assist them in spin-off creation. Our study fills this gap in the literature by studying real-life interaction between scientists and a business advisor hired by a university. The primary data for the study consists of tape-recorded discussions. The micro-ethnographic study shows how the business advisor communicates his preferred meanings concerning the RBSO to the scientists, who try to make sense of what an RBSO means and requires from them.

The 'privileged witness': advising scientists to start research-based spin-offs

The paper explores how a 'privileged witness' (Wright et al., 2007), that is, a business advisor hired by a university, assists scientists in commercialising their research through research-based spin-offs (RBSOs). Prior research on the key actors of RBSOs has focused on what kind of scientists engage in this activity, what motivates them, and how they learn over time. Less research has been done on the micro-level interaction between scientists and those who assist them in spin-off creation. Our study fills this gap in the literature by studying real-life interaction between scientists and a business advisor hired by a university. The primary data for the study consists of tape-recorded discussions. The micro-ethnographic study shows how the business advisor communicates his preferred meanings concerning the RBSO to the scientists, who try to make sense of what an RBSO means and requires from them.