The effect of university and regional knowledge spillovers on firms’ performance: an analysis of the Spanish USOs

Rowing against the wind: how do times of austerity shape academic entrepreneurship in unfriendly environments?

“…These latter dynamics of creating opportunities in a context of crisis and austerity can be linked to a reflexivity-based construction of the external environment (cf., Suddaby et al 2015). According to this view, entrepreneurs do not just let themselves to be driven by the (hostile) external forces, but behave proactively to build and develop new opportunities, especially under university-triggered knowledge spillover contexts (Acs et al 2013;Leyden and Link 2013;Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017).…”

“…Generally speaking, availability of universities, incubator or technology parks, access to venture capital funds, and knowledge of potential investors or partners, are decisive factors for creating spin-offs. More specifically, the presence of venture capitalists, the capacity to generate internal funds or the capacity to work in high-tech sectors (Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017), the availability, size and experience of TTOs (Fritsch and Aamoucke, 2013;Link and Scott 2005;O'Shea et al 2005;Powers and McDougall 2005), as well as the development of R&D incubators that promote knowledge spillovers (Acs et al, 2013;Leyden and Link, 2013), can crucially support spin-off creation and growth. The availability of internal funding has been a key determinant in the spin-off growth due to the fact that their main assets are intangible, and they could not be used as a guarantee for banks (Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017).…”

“…More specifically, the presence of venture capitalists, the capacity to generate internal funds or the capacity to work in high-tech sectors (Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017), the availability, size and experience of TTOs (Fritsch and Aamoucke, 2013;Link and Scott 2005;O'Shea et al 2005;Powers and McDougall 2005), as well as the development of R&D incubators that promote knowledge spillovers (Acs et al, 2013;Leyden and Link, 2013), can crucially support spin-off creation and growth. The availability of internal funding has been a key determinant in the spin-off growth due to the fact that their main assets are intangible, and they could not be used as a guarantee for banks (Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017). In fact, spin-offs are often physically located in science parks, with incubators and entrepreneurship centers also playing a key sustaining role (Link and Scott 2005), especially in spin-off early stages (Clarysse and Moray 2004).…”

“…More than 25 investors participate in the fund (notably including the Valencian Regional Government, the regional cooperative bank Caixa Popular and the Valencia-based airline Air Nostrum) with €3.5 million (Tech Transfer UPV 2016). This novelty within the Spanish academic context tries to involve universities, public administration and private investors to develop academic start-ups (in line with the solutions suggested by Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017). In its first round, were collected 26 projects to invest up to €500.000 in 4 years.…”

“…As a result, dynamics of mutual reinforcement or both organization and individual-level reflexivity dynamics mightto some extentcounter-balance negative environmental conditions for (academic) entrepreneurship. Interestingly, the potential role of universities in these dynamics has been highlighted form various perspectives, such as (i) universities' catalyzing effect on knowledge spillovers (Leyden and Link 2013;Rodríguez-Gulías et al 2017), (ii) their influence as key actors in regional public research and higher education (Fritsch and Aamoucke 2013), and (iii) universities' specific specializations as a significant determinant of firm creation across industries at a local level (Bonaccorsi et al 2013).…”