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

Abstract

In recent years, universities and public authorities have increasingly focused on creating USOs (university spin-offs) as a method of transferring research results to society and of achieving the sustainable development sought by European institutions. However, the success of these policies depends on the appeal of creating a USO for academics. The aim of this research was to examine the relative importance of certain factors that may boost academic entrepreneurship and, therefore, to guide public policies. To do this, a qualitative study was carried out among 42 researchers from Spanish universities and research centres to understand their motivations for creating a USO. A quantitative study was then carried out, based on Conjoint Analysis and with a sample of 1726 academics, to identify the relative importance of six conditions that influence their predisposition to become entrepreneurs. This technique is seldom used in the field of entrepreneurship and, to the best of our knowledge, has never been used before to analyse academic entrepreneurship. The results of the study show that personal economic benefit is clearly the factor that heightens the intention to create a USO the most. Research benefit, CV benefit, support programmes, teaching reduction and personal cost are of lesser importance. The study also concludes that there are few differences according to the academic’s profile.

Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Skills and Their Influence on the Entrepreneurial Intention of Academics

“…The encouragement of academic entrepreneurship through the creation of university spin-offs (USOs) as a transfer system has been on the increase during the last two decades (Vega-Gomez et al, 2018). An academic entrepreneur could be viewed as that higher education actor who innovatively leverages internal and external opportunities to not only generate economic resources for their own profit or in support of their academic units and institutions, but also to create within the academy social and political change platforms.…”

Big Five Personality, Academic Entrepreneurial Motivation, and Academic Entrepreneurial Intention: A Research Method Based on Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

“…Academic entrepreneurial intention reflects the attention and behavior of academic entrepreneurs and leads to a subjective psychological state of determining whether they are willing to establish spin-offs, licensing, technology transfer, or similar activities. Previous studies have extensively discussed the factors that affect university teachers’ academic entrepreneurial intention including personal factors, such as personality traits ( Kolb and Wagner, 2015 ; Cantner et al, 2017 ; Obschonka et al, 2019 ; Vega-Gomez et al, 2020 ) and job satisfaction ( Blaese et al, 2021 ); financial factors, such as scholars’ scientific research (which needs further financial support) ( Foo et al, 2016 ), or improving personal economic interests ( Goethner et al, 2012 ; Vega-Gomez et al, 2018 ); academic factors, such as seeking an identity as an expert among colleagues in the academic community ( Obschonka et al, 2012 ), being supported by excellent leaders ( Johnson et al, 2017 ), or being in a good academic entrepreneurial environment and atmosphere of entrepreneurial culture among academic groups ( Huyghe and Knockaert, 2015 ; Wang et al, 2021b ); and social support factors, such as scholars’ parents owning an enterprise, finding an entrepreneurial role model in peers ( Moog et al, 2015 ), or commercialization attitude and social support ( Acuna-Duran et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021b ). These factors affect scholars’ academic entrepreneurial intention to varying degrees.…”

Key Factors of AS Performance in Emerging Central and Eastern European Countries: Evidence from Romania

“…The reason for this focus resides in the fact that AS companies, or university spin-offs, are one of the best ways to achieve sustainable development at a regional level and to have a real social impact [2]. Their main advantages in this line of reasoning are job creation, the diversification of businesses in a regional context, technological development, the creation of new sectors, and so on [3].…”