An empirical analysis of the relationship between university investments in Technology Transfer Offices and academic spin‐offs

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of university Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in contributing to the creation and the performance of academic spin‐offs (ASOs). More specifically, it investigates the relationship between resources invested in TTOs in term of employees and the creation and growth of ASOs. The empirical analysis refers to Italy, where since 1999 academicians have been allowed to be actively involved in setting up companies for the ‘industrial use of research’. We used data on ASOs and resources invested by Italian universities in TTOs during the 2002–2011 period to investigate if and to what extent such investments contributed to the birth and growth of ASOs. We also controlled the results using information on university and on local context, in which university is located. The results of the empirical analysis show that in a first phase academicians reacted more promptly than universities to the opportunities offered by the new legislation, which may in part be due to the organizational rigidity that characterizes Public Administration in Italy. However, the empirical analysis also shows that after this initial phase the size of the TTOs (in terms of employees) has had a positive influence on the number of new ASOs (i.e. birth), but not on the performance of ASOs (i.e. growth), which is influenced by both long‐term investments in research (i.e. the quality of research results) and other variables linked to the regional and national contexts, such as the presence of incubators or the level of economic development. Our results regard a widely studied topic and should provide incremental findings for the community of entrepreneurship scholars and relevant implications for policy makers and TTO managers.

Examining Key Technologies Among Academic Patents Through an Analysis of Standard-Essential Patents

“…Therefore, this study can generate an effect on accreditation requirements for university-declared R&D% allocation, particularly because the country in which a university is located and its citizens have high expectations regarding the practical applications of the university’s R&D outcomes in solving social problems (Ardito, 2018; Chatterjee et al, 2018; Perkmann et al, 2015). Consequently, an increasing number of studies have evaluated university technology transfer and commercialization performance (Azagra-Caro et al, 2017; Iacobucci et al, 2021; Viana et al, 2018). The results are of great significance to researchers, technology transfer offices, and policymakers for resource allocation, in particular answering relevant questions to technologies are at present crucial to the academic community.…”

Civil Law Regulation of Investments in the Scientific and Educational Ecosystem of the University

“…The dialectical interrelationships between the civil legal regulation of investments and the sustainable development of the scientific and educational ecosystem of the university have been established: 1) the efficiency of civil legal regulation of investments increases subject to the integration of scientific and educational processes, the improvement of social partnership mechanisms, the effective selection of leading indicators and the organization of rating assessment of structural units and faculty [17]; 2) the effectiveness of the civil legal regulation of investments increases under the condition of the development and commercialization of technological and pedagogical innovations, the successful completion of multi-projects, the creation of tangible and intangible assets and an increase in their profitability [18]; 3) the actualization of civil legal regulation of investments increases subject to the improvement of the network of continuous education, training of specialists with professional skills of the 21st century [19]; 4) the importance of civil legal regulation of investments increases subject to the transfer of technologies and competencies, an increase in the number of research and development works, the number of startups, as well as obtaining new licenses for educational activities [20].…”

Examining the micro‐level challenges experienced by publicly funded university principal investigators

“…This is because evaluations of research quality and impact in publicly funded grants increasingly incorporate assessments of the potential societal and commercial outcomes for a diverse set of stakeholder audiences, as well as the scientific results aimed at knowledge producers (D’Este et al, 2018; Fini et al, 2018; O'Kane et al, 2021). Acquiring public funding can also influence spin‐off creation (Chiesa and Piccaluga, 2000; Ramaciotti and Rizzo, 2015; Iacobacci et al, 2020) and the acquisition of additional private research funding (Chen et al, 2013; Muscio et al, 2013).…”