A nonlinear relationship between the team composition and performance in university spin-offs

Academic spinoffs team formation process: unfolding three micro-phases under the lens of effectuation and causation

“…Although it is known that the integration of different knowledge favours ASOs' growth (Ben-Hafaı €edh et al, 2018;Sciarelli et al, 2021;Tagliazucchi et al, 2021), past empirical contributions showed how this integration is arduous and how little is pursued (Nikiforou et al, 2018). By bringing the attention to the academic entrepreneur (Van de Ven et al, 1984) and the decision-making logic he/she adopts (Mitchell et al, 2002(Mitchell et al, , 2007, and how he/she is influenced by the academic context in which cumulates experience and knowledge (Ronstadt, 1988;Gruber et al, 2013), the present paper offers a contribution to how-questions about ASOs team formation process.…”

“…, 2018; Sciarelli et al. , 2021; Tagliazucchi et al. , 2021), past empirical contributions showed how this integration is arduous and how little is pursued (Nikiforou et al.…”

“…In the context of ASOs, the team formation process is pivotal (Cerver Romero et al, 2021;Nikiforou et al, 2018) so as the related bunch of decisions on "how first-time founders recombine different facets of old domain knowledge from academic research to navigate the new domain of entrepreneurship" (Cohen and Munshi, 2017, p. 131). A part of the academic literature agrees on the necessary integration of non-academic members within the team (Sciarelli et al, 2021;Tagliazucchi et al, 2021) or the board (Ferretti et al, 2020) to foster growth, to reach the credibility threshold (Rasmussen et al, 2011), to find appropriate market applications for cutting-edge technologies derived from the scientific research (Visintin and Pittino, 2014) and to enhance the commercial success of ASOs (Ben-Hafaı €edh et al, 2022;Lockett et al, 2005). Without any claim of systematic reviewing, we scrutinize the debate around the academic team formation process to date (see Table 1).…”

“…A part of the academic literature agrees on the necessary integration of non-academic members within the team (Sciarelli et al. , 2021; Tagliazucchi et al. , 2021) or the board (Ferretti et al.…”

Sustainable university entrepreneurship: Revisiting firm growth patterns

“…Finally, studies at the micro level focus on firm‐level variables that explain the USOs' growth. Broadly speaking, a large number of papers within this group of studies pay attention to the entrepreneur team, mainly considering the characteristics of founders and their networks (Ben‐Hafaïedh et al, 2018; Colombo et al, 2010; Mustar et al, 2008; Tagliazucchi et al, 2021; Wennberg et al, 2011). In contrast, few studies have explored the role played by firm‐specific characteristics, which is somewhat surprising since the literature on firm growth has highlighted a set of firm characteristics, such as size, age or innovative activities, among others, as main determinants of firm growth (see Coad, 2009).…”