The Role of Social and Institutional Contexts in Social Innovations of Spanish Academic Spinoffs

Social innovations developed by academic spinoffs (ASOs) are acquiring an ever-increasing relevance in the literature on academic entrepreneurship. Previous studies have considered the importance of the social and institutional contexts of entrepreneurial ecosystems for the development of these innovations, although a greater depth of analysis is required in this field of study. This research analyzes the influence of the frequency of contact with agents of social and institutional contexts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem on the social innovations of ASOs. From a sample of 173 Spanish ASOs, the results indicate that frequent contact with government and academic support units improves this type of innovation of ASOs. Regarding social context, an increase in the frequency of contact with customers, suppliers, and competitors favors the development of social innovation. However, frequent contact with venture capital firms inhibits the development of this type of innovation

Management Teams’ Composition and Academic Spin-Offs’ Entrepreneurial Orientation: A Theoretical Approach

This chapter has been designed with the purpose of providing a theoretical approach regarding the influence of both the composition of academic spin-offs’ management teams and the entrepreneurial orientation exhibited by such firms on the performance of academic spin-offs. To this end, we have drawn on the main theoretical premises of the upper echelon theory, and we have specifically focused on the impact exerted by the proportion of nonacademic managers within management teams, the heterogeneity of such teams with respect to the age and main educational area of their managers, as well as the potential mediating role of the entrepreneurial orientation. From the literature review carried out and the main arguments of the chapter will be expected a further empirical development

Opportunity recognition in academic spin-offs: a contingency approach

This paper analyses the factors that influence opportunity recognition (OR) of academic spin-offs (ASOs) from a contingency perspective. We focus on factors linked to the academic entrepreneur and propose that their relevance for explaining OR in ASOs depends on the context in which these firms operate: discovery (the necessary information for entrepreneurs to assess the new opportunities is available in the market) versus creation (complete information about opportunity exploitation and the likelihood of achieving certain outcomes is not available in the market). Results obtained in a sample of 167 Spanish ASOs show that, in a discovery context, academic entrepreneurs' OR is positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy, previous managerial experience and access to academic and industry networks. In a creation context, only entrepreneurial self-efficacy and access to industry networks become critical to OR, whereas previous managerial experience exerts a negative effect. Our results also show that the most relevant factor in a discovery context is previous managerial experience, while in a creation context, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is the most significant

Linear and non-linear patterns of internationalisation and funding in academic spin-offs

Academic spin-offs (ASOs) are typically technologically driven, and their expansion into foreign markets has become a priority for the generation of revenue, thereby recuperating the initial R&D and patent costs over a shorter time frame. However, the literature of how these firms internationalise and what sources they can rely on to obtain the financial resources remains very limited. Two main objectives are proposed in this paper: first, the analysis of whether those relationships that ASOs maintain with various agents to provide financial resources for internationalisation differ between ASOs that have internationalised and those that have not; and second, the study into whether those ASOs that internationalise by following different internationalisation patterns present differences in their agents that provide them with financial resources. From a sample of 173 Spanish ASOs, results of cluster analysis and post-hoc tests indicate that internationalised ASOs rely on financial agents different to those of domestic ASOs. We firstly conclude, that the most representative internationalisation pattern in ASOs is Born Global (BG), through the True Born Global (TBG) and Sporadic Born Global (SBG) sub-patterns. Second, the internationalisation patterns are supported by different financial agents, although governmental institutions and Venture Capital (VC) firms constitute the most relevant agents

Opportunity recognition in academic spin-offs: a contingency approach

This paper analyses the factors that influence opportunity recognition of academic spin-offs from a contingency perspective. We focus on factors linked to the academic entrepreneur and propose that their relevance for explaining opportunity recognition in academic spin-offs depends on the context in which these firms operate: discovery (the necessary information for entrepreneurs to assess the new opportunities is available in the market) vs. creation (complete information about opportunity exploitation and the likelihood of achieving certain outcomes is not available in the market). Results obtained in a sample of 167 Spanish academic spin-offs show that, in a discovery context, academic entrepreneurs’ opportunity recognition is positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy, previous managerial experience, and access to academic and industry networks. In a creation context, only entrepreneurial self-efficacy and access to industry networks become critical to opportunity recognition, whereas previous managerial experience exerts a negative effect. Our results also show that the most relevant factor in a discovery context is previous managerial experience, while in a creation context, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is the most significant.Área de Organización de Empresa

The influence of gender on entrepreneurial intention: The mediating role of perceptual factors

Summary The empirical evidence devoted to analyze the impact of perceptual factors in explaining the differences in the entrepreneurial intention of men and women is still limited and not entirely conclusive (Shinnar et al., 2012, Wilson et al., 2009). This non-conclusive research is significantly more noteworthy when the analysis is focused on the entrepreneurial intention of men and women once they become entrepreneurs. Drawing on this gap and taking as starting point the premises of Social Feminist Theory, our paper aims to examine the mediating role of perceptual factors on the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intention of non-entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs. Drawing on a sample provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Project of 21,697 Spanish non-entrepreneurs and 2899 Spanish entrepreneurs, our results have shown that, in general terms, perceptual factor fully mediate the relationship between gender and the entrepreneurial intention of non-entrepreneurs, whereas such mediating impact disappears when people become entrepreneurs.

TTO characteristics and university entrepreneurship: a cluster analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze potentially significant differences in a series of relevant characteristics of universities’ technology transfer offices (TTOs). To this end, TTOs have been classified by the function of their resources assigned to the enhancement of university entrepreneurship. The factors analyzed are the number of academic spin-offs created with the support of TTOs as well as the TTOs’ age, experience, professionalization and relational capital. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have performed a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis to identify the groups of TTOs with homogeneous behavior and features. This multivariate technique allows determining whether it is possible to identify some differentiated conglomerates of TTOs. Findings – The results of the cluster analysis allow concluding that the number of academic spin-offs created with the support of TTOs, the age and degree of professionalization of these TTOs, the experiences of their employees in matters related to entrepreneurship and their relationships with market actors explain the different levels of commitment of TTOs toward the enhancement of university entrepreneurship. In contrast with the expected results, the relationship between TTOs and academic actors does not seem to explain such differences. Originality/value – This research contributes to the identification of the particular design characteristics that TTOs should exhibit to promote the entrepreneurial performance of universities, offering important recommendations to academic institutions regarding the efficient design of TTOs to manage university ambidexterity and to build TTOs’ entrepreneurial identity