Les spin-offs universitàries són més productives a llarg termini que altres empreses tecnològiques

Sembla àmpliament acceptat que una forma de potenciar el desenvolupament d'una economia és estimular les iniciatives empresarials en l'entorn acadèmic. No obstant això, l'evidència empírica disponible mostra que els resultats econòmics d'aquestes empreses, de mitjana, solen ser pitjors que els resultats d'altres empreses de base tecnològica. Aquest treball suggereix que això succeeix al principi de la vida de les empreses, però amb el temps aquesta tendència es reverteix. Això podria ser degut a una major capacitat d'aprenentatge dels emprenedors acadèmics.Investigadores del Departamento de Empresa de la UAB y de la Universidad de Birmingham han analizado la productividad de las empresas de base tecnológica españolas, con el fin de comparar las características de las spin-offs universitarias con las del resto. Según el estudio, las spin-offs tienen peores resultados económicos durante los tres primeros años, pero su productividad supera la del resto a partir de ese momento. Según el estudio, el motivo podría radicar en una capacidad de aprendizaje superior de los emprendedores académicos.Researchers from the Department of Business of the UAB and of the University of Birmingham have analysed the productivity of technology- based companies in Spain with the aim of comparing the characteristics of spin-offs with all other companies. According to the study, spin-offs have lower economic results during the first three years, but their productivity surpasses the other companies after that. According to the study, the reason for this could lie in a higher capacity for learning among academic entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship and the Legal Form of the Business : The Role of Differences in Beliefs

Entrepreneurship has been considered a way to implement interpersonal authority, i.e., to convince other persons to use their resources in an alternative way to the optimal one in accordance with their beliefs. This paper presents a theoretical model that relates the above assumption with the following two questions: (i) how and why financial constraints can prevent the implementation of entrepreneurial projects; and (ii) how creditors' priorities provided by the different legal forms of the business can reduce the financial requirements for implementing the firm. The attractiveness of such an explanation lies in its capacity to justify a wide array of features of firms (entrepreneur origin, property rights, authority, financial constraints and creditor priorities) from a single basic assumption: agents have different beliefs about how production should be organized

Compensation and span of control in hierarchical organizations

This article presents evidence on the relationship between compensation ratios and spans of control within hierarchical organizations. We find that compensation ratios are lower than span of control at any position within the hierarchy, which is consistent with an elasticity of compensation to a number of subordinates lower than one. Managers' human capital endowments determine a significant part of the salary differences throughout hierarchical levels, as predicted by models of talent allocation in hierarchies. Differences in the size of firms should be attributed more to differences in their number of hierarchical levels than to variations in the span of control

Why do university spin-offs attract more venture capitalists?

This paper provides empirical evidence that young university spin-offs are more likely to receive venture capital than other technological start-ups. In addition, this fact is explained mainly by the lack of managerial skills among the founders of certain university spin-offs. The data used has been obtained from a questionnaire answered by 64 Spanish technological firms founded between the years 1993 and 2005. Forty of the firms are university spin-offs; the remainder are independent technology-based start-ups. The results support the complementary-assets view that academic entrepreneurs use venture capitalists as a means of gaining access to managerial skills. These results are maintained even when we control for financial constraints, levels of debt and intellectual-property protection. Although these latter variables explain why certain high-tech firms are more likely to receive venture capital, we do not find statistical evidence that they explain the differences between university spin-offs and technological start-ups in terms of being backed by venture capitalists. The results therefore suggest that universities and policy makers can stimulate the creation and growth of university spin-offs by facilitating contact and trust between venture capitalists and academic entrepreneurs, mostly with respect to those cases in which there is a severe lack of managerial skills

Executive turnover revisited from an efficiency wage perspective

We develop theoretical arguments from the efficiency wage model (Shapiro & Stiglitz, 1984) to provide better understanding of Fama's (1980) seminal notion that executive labor markets contribute to the alignment of executive and shareholder interests. We show how the efficiency wage model can be integrated with several other theories of executive turnover. Furthermore, the model allows for predictions that have received very little analysis to date, such as the effect of firm risk and executive salaries on turnover. We test predictions from the model on a sample of executives from 280 manufacturing firms observed annually from 1986 to 1992. Our sample includes data on over 12,000 observations and nearly 1,700 employment terminations. The results are consistent with the main predictions of the efficiency wage model. Holding performance constant, boards of directors are less patient with (more likely to dismiss) executives who have lower salaries and those in higher risk firms.A partir del modelo de salarios de eficiencia (Shapiro & Stiglitz, 1984) se desarrollan argumentos teóricos para una mejor comprensión de como el mercado laboral ayuda a alinear los intereses de directivos y accionistas. El modelo se puede integrar con la mayoría de teorías relacionadas con la rotación de altos directivos. Además se deducen predicciones escasamente analizadas como es el efecto del riesgo empresarial y los salarios de los gestores en la rotación de los directivos . Dichas predicciones se contrastan en una muestra de altos ejecutivos pertenecientes a 280 empresas industriales sobre las cuales se recoge información anual desde el año 1986 hasta 1992. La muestra contiene más de 12.000 observaciones y cerca de 1.700 rotaciones de directivos. Los resultados son consistentes con las principales predicciones del modelo teórico. Ante niveles similares de resultados, los consejos de administración son menos pacientes (mayores probabilidades de cese) con aquellos directivos peor retribuidos y en empresas de mayor riesg

OTRI : agenda de investigación

Este artículo presenta diferentes líneas de investigación para extender los actuales trabajos empíricos sobre el papel de las Oficinas de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación (OTRI). Dichas líneas surgen de los nuevos avances en el análisis micro económico de las OTRIs y se plantean cuestiones cómo la justificación de su existencia, los incentivos de los científicos o la mejor forma de transferir tecnología, licencia o spin-off. Muchas de estas líneas permanecen todavía sin analizar y en las que se dispone de evidencia ésta proviene básicamente de EEUU y UK. La investigación empírica debe fomentar nuevos avances en el ámbito teórico.The present paper presents different lines of work in order to extend the current empirical research about the role of the technology transfer offices (TTO). Those lines of research come from the new advances in the micro economic analysis of TTOs and focus on questions such as the economic reasons for the existence of TTOs, the incentives scheme of the scientist and the best way of transferring technology, licensing or spinning-off. Most of these lines still remain without analyzing and the existent evidence comes basically from US and UK. The empirical research should foment new advances in the theoretical approach

Entrepreneurship capital spillovers at the local level

The paper analyses three underexplored issues in the entrepreneurship capital spillover literature, namely, its local nature, the generators and the receptors of such spillovers. For that purpose, we take advantage of the Ecuadorian census of establishments. Unlike previous evidence, we can estimate the spillovers at the establishment level, compute the entrepreneurship capital at the local level, and compare different permissiveness levels in the application of registration and tax legislation to businesses (i.e., the relative importance of the informal economy). In general, we find entrepreneurship capital spillovers at the local level. The spillover effects are lower when the entrepreneurship capital has been accumulated in informal businesses. By contrast, informal, large and more technologically developed establishments benefit more from these spillover effects. The paper discusses the implications of those findings for the design of public policies for promoting entrepreneurship

Regional entrepreneurship capital and firm production

Certain theories suggest that the capacity of a region to generate new firms, called entrepreneurship capital, has positive spillover effects on the production of the firms in that region. Evidence generated with aggregated data at the regional level supports this prediction. This paper argues that, using aggregated data at the regional level, entrepreneurship capital could be correlated with regional production even if entrepreneurship capital has no spillover effects on firm production. This will not be the case when data at the firm level are used. This paper provides evidence from a sample of 11,276 Spanish firms during the 2004-2012 period. Positive spillovers are estimated in between effects models, but such spillovers are only found in technological firms when within effects models have been estimated. Thus, the regional entrepreneurship capital spillovers are unclear when data at the firm level are used. Plausible interpretations and implications are discussed

Entrepreneurship Capital and Regional Productivity Revisited

Entrepreneurship capital has been considered in the literature to be a public good, so it will positively affect the total factor productivity of the firms in a certain region. There is evidence confirming a positive relationship between entrepreneurship capital measures and regional production. This paper argues that this evidence could also be explained by the presence of decreasing returns to scale in firms’ production technology. So previous evidence may be mixing both effects: returns to scale and public goods. This paper provides a simple methodological benchmark for distinguishing between and measuring both effects. The analysis conducted using a sample of 52 Spanish provinces for eleven years confirms the presence of decreasing returns to scale. In our data, previous interpretations of the evidence overestimate the effect of regional entrepreneurship capital as a public good on the economy