The determinants of academic spin‐off creation by Italian universities

Abstract

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 by 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

Co-Evolution of the University Technology Transfer: Towards a Sustainability-Oriented Industry: Evidence from Italy

“…Moreover, the creation of research-based spin-offs and start-ups has raised a growing interest among scholars as important contributors to the development of local economies that positively influence job creation (e.g., [66]). In this respect, in Italy the creation of USOs has grown in intensity and importance since 2000 [64], but is still "immature" as highlighted by Ramaciotti and Rizzo [67] (p. 502) on the basis of a report by the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR). In October 2017, the total number of USOs was 1373, and 72% of this amount results from spin-offs that have been formed since 2008 ( Table 2).…”

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

“…In particular, the research focus is on the Italian context, where academic spin-offs are often seen, and thus criticised, as a means of continuing a particular research project, with only a few based on a patented academic invention (Ramaciotti and Rizzo 2015). In addition, they tend to be significantly risk averse (Chiesa and Piccaluga 2000), and to remain small firms with low growth prospects (Salvador 2006).…”

The Spin-Off as an Instrument of Sustainable Development: Incentives for Creating an Academic USO

“…They can be of a biological or cognitive nature, the result of their social interaction [30] or psychological factors [31]. Among the individual features that have been proven to impact on entrepreneurial intention are the individual's academic seniority, entrepreneurial personality, self-confidence, creativity, the perceived utility of entrepreneurship, the level to which the academic promotes the societal role of universities, gender or scientific productivity (see [11,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]).…”