The spin-off of elite universities in non-competitive, undifferentiated higher education systems: an empirical simulation in Italy (original) (raw)
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University spin-offs and their impact: Longitudinal evidence from Italy
The creation of University Spin-Off companies (USOs) is one of the most visible form of commercialization of university research. To date, there is scant and mixed evidence about USOs and their performance, thus producing a debate about their impact on the economy and society and about the legitimization of policies to support their development. In this paper, we address this gap by providing evidence about the growth strategies and performances of USOs in the Italian context. We analyze the population of 935 USOs spun-off from Italian public universities since 2000, highlighting potential avenues for future research on this important topic.
The governance of universities and the establishment of academic spin-offs
Small Business Economics, 2017
While the metaphor of entrepreneurial ecosystem has become popular in academia, industry and government, one aspect is almost neglected, the role of universities. In particular, there is a paucity of studies that examine the governance of universities in relation to their engagement within the ecosystem. This paper relates for the first time the governance structure of universities to their capacity to foster the establishment of academic spinoffs. Thanks to a regulatory change imposing to Italian State universities the enrollment of lay members (i.e., external directors) in their board of directors, we can observe their appointment as an exogenous shock. We find that, while half of the universities appoint the minimum required number of lay members, others appoint more, up to creating board of directors where only the rector is not external. Moreover, there is a strong variety in the type of experiential capital that these lay members bring to universities. While some are entrepreneurs or managers of private firms, others are local stakeholders, such as lawyers or members of foundations or chambers of commerce. Such variance is reflected in the stimulus they exert on the creation of spin-offs. Using a regression discontinuity design on a sample of 1234 spin-offs from 66 universities, our longitudinal study of 1122 university-year observations shows that the rate of establishment of technology spin-offs increases more when more entrepreneurs are appointed. Local stakeholders in the university's board of directors, by contrast, are associated with increased establishments of service-oriented spinoffs.
The determinants of academic spin-off creation by Italian universities
R&D Management, 2014
The aim of this work is to investigate the university level determinants of academic spin-off (ASO) firm creation in Italy. We are interested in particular in the relationship between university funding and the university propensity to create spin-offs, and test the effect of public and third party funds on this tendency. We estimate the effect of several variables for the characteristics of the university and the context. In contrast to our expectations, results indicate that third party funding does not exert an effect on the propensity of the university to generate ASO firms. Similarly, and in contrast to what the literature suggests, scientific productivity, context innovativeness and patenting experience also do not have a positive and significant effect on the propensity to generate spin-offs. We find that ASO creation is influenced by the amount of public income, by past experience in creating spin-offs and the presence of a technology transfer office. This work contributes to our understanding of the differences between Italy and the Anglo Saxon countries in relation to the phenomenon of ASO creation, and has some important implications for policy.
What matters: The Formation of University Spin-offs in Europe
Business Systems Research , 2019
Background: Transfer of knowledge from academia to business is one of the crucial issues for creating innovation. Creation of university spin-offs could significantly improve this transfer. Objectives: The main scientific aim is to examine the differences between universities in European countries and identify factors affecting the probability of creating the university spin-off. The paper is also focused on the differences in the specialization and financial sources of universities. Methods/Approach: We compare selected indicators for higher education institutions in European countries and examine potential determinants affecting the probability of academic spin-off formation. With respect to the main aim, the logit and probit regression analyses have been used. Results: Our results show that the creation of spin-offs is typical on the one hand for highly specialized universities or on the other hand for universities with a wide variety of study programs. They should also have an optimum number of doctoral students and have mostly less funding from tuition fees. Conclusions: Several indicators appear to play an important role in the formation of university spin-off. These indicators are the level of specialization, the share of tuition fees in the University budget, and the share of Ph.D. and foreign students.
Technology transfer offices and academic spin-off creation: the case of Italy
The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2011
Over the past decades, university-industry relationships have become an important subject due to the essential role played by technological progress in the economic development of countries. From a theoretical point of view, several studies have shown the close relationship between investments in research and innovative activities of universities and the economic growth of specific territories. Indeed, the strong linkages between universities and a country's production system encourage the process of technology transfer and the commercial use of the research results. For this reason, the European Union has implemented a series of measures to promote the adoption of research findings in the real economic and social context, strengthening the linkages between universities, industries and government. As a starting point for enhancing this link, specific mechanisms have been devised by universities. In particular, technology transfer offices (TTOs) have been created to stimulate and encourage the dissemination of the research outcomes, translate them into practise, and facilitate their interrelations with the other two agents of the innovation systems: industries and government. Within this context, the present paper aims to gain knowledge on the determinants of spin-off creation in Italy with special attention to the role played by university TTOs. Specifically, an econometric probability model has been built merging the extant literature into four distinct strands. The analysis, based on the NetVal indicators and primary data survey, has allowed us to assess the Italian experience at an aggregate and disaggregate level.
Small Business Economics
The creation of spin-off firms from universities is seen as an important mechanism for the commercialization of research, and hence the overall contribution from universities to technological development and economic growth. Governments and universities are seeking to develop framework conditions that are conductive to spinoff creation. The most prevalent of such initiatives are legislative changes at national level and the establishment of Technology Transfer Offices (TTO) at university level. The effectiveness of such initiatives is debated, but empirical evidence is limited. In this paper we analyze the full population of universities in Italy, Norway, and the UK; three countries adopting differing approaches to framework conditions, to test whether national and university level initiatives have an influence on the number of spin-offs created and the quality of these spin-offs. Building on institutional theory and using multi-level analysis, we find that changes in the institutional framework conditions at both national and university level are conductive to the creation of more spin-offs, but that the increase in quantity is at the expense of the quality of these firms. Hence, the effect of such top-down changes in framework conditions on the economic impact from universities seems to be more symbolic than substantive.
Higher Education Forum , 2019
Universities are presently considered vital players in the transfer of nowledge, innovation and technology to the economy. This is one of the roots of the diffuse reform processes evident in most European tertiary sectors. In almost 2 years Italian universities have experienced many changes that deeply reshaped their academic institutions. Among other aspects, the need to ma e an adequate contribution in answer to the demands of society led to an extension and deepening of universities so-called ourth ission eiger, 200 retz S , 201 . A multifaceted set of activities were therefore introduced to strengthen the liaison between academia and society. In the past, this role was mainly concerned with granting patents to outsiders, but today universities are also increasingly dedicated to the creation and promotion of spin-off activities. These are instruments designed to respond to social pressures towards accountability and establish a dialogue with the economy through the sharing of academic research findings. In this framewor , the main features of each academic institution are an important variable in the spin-offs development process. Through the use of case studies University of essina Polytechnic of Turin Scuola Superiore Sant Anna of Pisa University of Trento and the analysis of 0 qualitative interviews with ey actors in each spin-off directly and indirectly involved in the entrepreneurial projects , the paper investigates university spin-offs in Italy from two different perspectives. irst, the growing number of spin-offs as related to the present conditions of young Italian academic researchers increasingly affected by budget constraints , university policies, and new management issues. Second, the identity and self-perception of academic actors involved in the spin-offs creative process.