Linear and non-linear patterns of internationalisation and funding in academic spin-offs

Which variables predict the internationalization type of academic spin-offs?

“…Expanding to foreign markets helps them to grow faster [ 35 ], and it also sometimes gives an impulse for developing new products [ 9 ]. Moreover, internationalization can be necessary for spin-offs with substantial research and development costs, especially if they focus on niche customers [ 10 ] or if their home market is very small [ 36 ]. An overall framework of academic spin-offs’ internationalization is presented on Fig.…”

“…[ 1 , 2 , 5 , 34 ]) but the literature is still fragmented and more quantitative studies on different firms’ internationalization strategies [ 6 ] and international performance are needed [ 7 ]. As academic spin-offs’ internationalization has received less attention, there are still several under-explored areas in the literature [ 8 , 9 ]: for instance, these firms’ internationalization patterns should be studied more as they do not all enter foreign markets at a similar speed [ 10 ].…”

“…Studying academic spin-offs is important as they actively contribute to their host countries’ economic development via scientific knowledge transfer [ 11 ], promoting innovation [ 12 , 13 ] and internationalization [ 14 ], creating jobs [ 15 ] and strengthening links between universities and local firms [ 16 ]. Moreover, according to some studies, export activities have a positive impact on academic spin-offs’ survival [ 17 – 19 ], and internationalization is the main way for commercializing their research results [ 20 ] as due to focusing on narrow market niches, the home market might be too small for them [ 10 ].…”

Opportunity recognition in academic spin‐offs: a contingency approach

“…Entrepreneurs with prior managerial experience are expected to have the ability to scan the environment in the search for relevant information and to make sense of new information (Hmieleski et al, 2015). This could be especially difficult for ASOs, since their traditional mimetic isomorphism usually results in highly unbalanced management teams, with a prominent orientation towards academic and scientific terms and a notorious lack of knowledge regarding the market (Ensley and Hmieleski, 2005; Fernández‐Alles et al, 2022). Therefore, those management teams that include managers with prior managerial experience are expected to pursue existing opportunities more proactively, through constant scanning, searching and exploration across technologies and markets (Andersson and Evers, 2015).…”