Academic Spin-off Management: A Bibliometric Study

This research broadens the understanding of university spin-off management through a bibliometric analysis of select literature on the subject. Using the ProknowC method, papers published between 2011 and 2021 in the Scopus database were systematically analysed. The process resulted in a portfolio of 37 relevant papers that aligned with the research topics that were subject to bibliometric analyses. The results are expected to contribute to academia, policymaking, and managers in developing theoretical frameworks and actions for academic spin-offs

UNIVERSITY AS NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE PLAYER: A SEARCH FOR THE NEW 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 (ASU) that can play a strategic role in their local economy. This paper aims to contribute to the lively debate about the universities policies in entrepreneurial finance. In the first part, it investigates the strengths and weaknesses of academic start-ups and the role that universities have to support them in value creation. The authors tested the research questions on a sample of start-ups of the University of Pisa. The findings show important financial and not-financial goals of academic start-ups. These goals can fuel the dialogue with entrepreneurial finance players. Furthermore, the research shows some ASUs’ vulnerabilities. In conclusion, the role of universities as new entrepreneurial players is discussed

ACADEMIC SPIN-OFFS FOR THE LOCAL ECONOMY GROWTH

Some research supports the suggestion that start-ups can represent a driver in job creation, economic growth, innovation and competitiveness. In the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan and in the Action Plan on Building a Capital Market Union (2015), one of the main actions is promoting entrepreneurship, to support financing innovation for start-ups, to develop a capital market able to stimulate new business and their growth. Policy makers support start-ups and the university promote its 3rd mission, technology transfer, with a policy of new businesses, with academic spin-offs (ASOs). Academic spin-offs can produce direct and indirect benefits on local economies, but these companies encounter many difficulties to develop. The difficulties of access to finance and lack of managerial skills are the main constraints of growth identified in literature. In the paper, we describe the results of an empirical research on spin–offs of the University of Pisa, with the purpose to capture both the benefits generated in the local area and their contribution to relation capital of the university, but also their difficulties in growth. We found that academic spin-offs have produced important effects on local economies, especially with new jobs, but they reveal some criticisms of financial management behavior, which hampers their development. In the conclusion, we debate about the role of the Capital market Union actions by promoting “financing for innovation” for the growth of academic spin-offs

An Evaluation System for University-Industry Partnership Sustainability: Enhancing Options for Entrepreneurial Universities

The concept of university–industry partnership sustainability (UIPS) stands for well-adjusted progress among key players from universities and industry by sustaining their welfare, both in the present and in the future. This paper sought to develop an evaluation system for UIPS. The need for such a system is justified at three levels: the micro level (i.e., research and innovation performance, transfer and absorptive capability, and technology development), the meso level (i.e., institutional arrangements, communication networks, and local and indigenous rules) and the macro level (i.e., supply and demand, regulations, financing, taxes, culture, traditions, market, climate, politics, demographics, and technology). The UIPS evaluation system developed in this study offers the possibility of calculating a fair value of UIPS and providing recommendations for improving university–industry (U–I) partnerships. This can be of great importance for entrepreneurial universities that would like to strengthen their corporate links and/or reduce/reverse the “hollowing effect” of globalisation in disadvantaged regions. Additionally, this paper also contains discussions on the advantages, limitations, and managerial implications of this proposal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spin-off universitarias y desempeño organizacional: una revisión sistemática de la literatura

En el artículo llevamos a cabo una revisión sistemática de la literatura sobre las spin-off universitarias. Tanto por motivos teóricos como prácticos, la temática sobre este tipo de empresas ha crecido fuertemente en los últimos años. Luego de presentar los principales indicadores descriptivos analizamos la revisión desde la óptica del desempeño organizacional. Utilizamos el enfoque de Jeffrey Pfeffer clasificando la literatura sobre spin-off universitarias a través de la contingencia estructural, la ecología organizacional, los recursos humanos y las redes. Este enfoque nos ha permitido caracterizar cuatro dimensiones analíticas útiles para futuros estudios sobre las spin-off universitarias

Spin-off universitarias y desempeño organizacional: una revisión sistemática de la literatura

In the article we carry out a systematic review of the literature on university spin-offs. For both theoretical and practical reasons, the subject of this type of company has grown strongly in recent years. After presenting the main descriptive indicators, we analyze the review from the perspective of organizational performance. We use Jeffrey Pfeffer's approach by classifying the literature on university spin-offs through structural contingency, organizational ecology, human resources, and networks. This approach has allowed us to characterize four useful analytical dimensions for future studies on university spin-offs.En el artículo llevamos a cabo una revisión sistemática de la literatura sobre las spin-off universitarias. Tanto por motivos teóricos como prácticos, la temática sobre este tipo de empresas ha crecido fuertemente en los últimos años. Luego de presentar los principales indicadores descriptivos analizamos la revisión desde la óptica del desempeño organizacional. Utilizamos el enfoque de Jeffrey Pfeffer clasificando la literatura sobre spin-off universitarias a través de la contingencia estructural, la ecología organizacional, los recursos humanos y las redes. Este enfoque nos ha permitido caracterizar cuatro dimensiones analíticas útiles para futuros estudios sobre las spin-off universitarias

Size and survival: an analysis of the university spin-offs

Universities have created USOs to exploit the research knowledge and contribute to the economic development of their regions in the last decades, leading to an extensive literature on the topic. However, this growing literature has widely overlooked the links between firm size and survival. This paper explores simultaneously the role of size and other firm characteristics on the likelihood of the USOs’ survival, mainly drawing on the RBV of the firm. The empirical study uses an unbalanced panel consisting of 2,220 observations from 465 Spanish USOs observed between 2005 and 2013 and event (survival) analysis techniques. The results confirm than firm size is positively associated with the USOs’ survival. Moreover, the empirical evidence seems to support the existence of a minimum size that, once reached, makes the failure risk of USOs not significantly dependent on size itself. The findings also confirm that the determinants of survival consistently differ between micro USOs and SML USOs. Thus, the survival of micro USOs is negatively affected by those activities that involve high needs of resources, like patent activity or debt payment. In contrast, exporting increases the survival probability of SML USOsS

Which factors are perceived as obstacles for the growth of Italian academic spin-offs?

During the last decades, academic spin-offs have received increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their ability to advance industrial application of scientific knowledge. In the past, scholars believed that these organisations were subjected to fast growth after their establishment. Only in the last decade, scholars realise that the fast-growing perspective hypothesised was an oversimplification, as the majority of high-tech academic spin-offs growth slowly or remain small in size for long time. The aim of our study is to investigate the reasons that inhibit the growth of established academic spin-offs, focusing on the Italian context. Through the implementation of the Delphi technique and of the fuzzy logic we derive new and relevant results, for scholars, spin-offs’ managers and policy-makers