The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Actors and Performance in Different Stages of Evolution of Academic Spinoffs

Abstract

The importance of entrepreneurial ecosystems is accentuated in the academic entrepreneurship context since academic spinoffs (ASOs) must rely on actors from the ecosystem to access resources they lack in order to improve their performance. This study analyzes the impact that actors from social and institutional (university and nonuniversity) contexts in the entrepreneurial ecosystem have on ASO performance in the stage of creation and initial development and in the stage of consolidation. From a sample of 118 ASOs in the initial stage and 47 ASOs in the consolidation stage, the results indicate that social and institutional contexts improve the performance of ASOs in both phases of development, although the relevance of each context varies with the stage. In the creation and initial development stage, the institutional context affects the ASOs’ performance to a greater extent, while the influence of the social context is less strong. Science parks from the institutional context are the most relevant actors in this phase. In the consolidation phase, social context is the most relevant for improving the performance of ASOs, with the venture capitalist being the actor that exerts more influence. With respect to the institutional context, performance is only affected by the nonuniversity context in this stage.

The Role of Social and Institutional Contexts in Social Innovations of Spanish Academic Spinoffs

“…The relevance of TTOs in the development of social innovation in ASOs differs from that of other organizations that fall outside the university context and therefore justifies the need to analyze the influence of the entrepreneurial ecosystem on the development of social innovation by ASOs. In addition, the study by Franco-Leal et al [20] indicated that TTOs are irrelevant for the economic performance of ASOs. This means that according to the ecosystem theory, the contexts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem affect the results of the companies in different ways, and hence, depending on the type of result or innovation developed by the firm, companies need to rely on different contexts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem [21].…”

“…In order to identify the key actors of the social and institutional contexts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of ASOs, an extensive literature review was carried out, which revealed that the social context comprises relationships with national and international customers, suppliers, competitors, and VCs. The institutional context is composed of relationships with national and international government institutions, TTOs, incubators, other academics, chairs of entrepreneurs, and research centers [20,94,95]. By focusing on Mitchell [96] and Smith et al [97], the frequency of contact was employed to measure the interactions of ASOs with each agent.…”

“…Within the academic entrepreneurship literature, other authors also recognize that entrepreneurial ecosystems can provide ASOs with different types of resources that they need for their creation and for the improvement of their performance [4,20,[62][63][64]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have yet considered the link between agents of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and social innovation of ASOs [4,9].…”

“…In our research, in order to consider the idiosyncratic characteristics of the academic entrepreneurship context, the institutional context is assumed to comprise actors from both the university context (e.g., technology transfer offices (TTOs), university incubators, research colleagues, chairs of entrepreneurs, and research centers) and from the non-university context, in form of mainly government and institutions. For their part, within the social context of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, customers, suppliers, competitors, and venture capital firms (VCs) are included [20]. Specifically, our research questions are: What agents from the social and institutional contexts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem contribute towards improving the social innovation of ASOs?…”

The impact of human, social, and psychological capital on academic spin-off internationalization

“…Along these same lines, Laurell et al (2017) highlight that not only are international relationships key to the internationalization process, but local networks are also essential, such as with universities and hospitals. Laurell et al (2013), Mikhailova andOlsen (2016), andFranco-Leal et al (2020) distinguish between academic, institutional, and social business relationship networks. Others, such as Coviello and Munro (1995), Rasmussan et al (2001), Shirokova and McDougall-Covin (2012), Laurell et al (2017), andSekliuckiene (2017), distinguish between formal (business-related) relationships and informal or social (family and friends) relationships.…”