“To have and have not”: founders’ human capital and university start-up survival

Abstract

This is an accepted version of a paper published in Journal of Technology Transfer. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.Citation for the published paper: Criaco, G., Minola, T., Migliorini, P., Serarols-Tarrés, C. AbstractIn order to preserve innovation, knowledge development and diffusion, as well as the transfer of new technologies, the emergence of University Start-Ups (USU) and their survival as a particular dimension of performance represents a relevant research topic. As USU generally have scarce initial resources, the human capital of their founders is one of their main business assets. Although the survival of such firms is supposed to be heavily dependent on the human capital characteristics of their founders, this has not received enough attention in existing research. In this paper we investigate the contribution of founders' specific human capital characteristics to the survival of USU, building on Gimeno et al. (Adm Sci Q 42:750-783, 1997) threshold model of entrepreneurial exit. We divide USU founders' specific human capital into three components (entrepreneurship, industry and university) in order to better understand its impact on firm survival. Our theoretical model is empirically tested on a unique sample of Catalan USU through a logistic regression analysis.Coherently with our theoretical reasoning, the results show that industry human capital negatively affect USU survival, while university human capital and entrepreneurship human capital enhance the likelihood of USU survival.

Assessing Technology-Based Spin-offs from University Support Units

“…It may well be that academic knowledge is not always useful in the market (see, e.g., Chapple et al (2005)), but academic knowledge jointly with experience at the university of origin may matter for regional objectives. This is in line with the more narrow approach of Criaco et al (2013) who, without specific links to regional goals or efficiency, find that Catalan TT firms' survival rate is greater if founders are university members.…”

“…Indeed-in both theoretical and practical terms-it seems that retaining a PhD from the university of origin to continue working in the firm could create an interaction between embedded resources and specific capabilities that is positively related to efficiency (see Figure 1). On a related note, Criaco et al (2013) analyse Catalan TT firms and find that using university human capital enhances spin-offs survival. However, their approach is fundamentally different from ours, since they focus only on founders' human capital and exclusively on firm survival, without linking it to regional objectives or the related spin-offs' efficiency.…”

Entrepreneurship and the determinants of firm survival within regions: human capital, growth motivation and locational conditions

“…Higher levels of human capital is associated with greater ability to identify and exploit opportunities (Ramos-Rodríguez, Medina-Garrido, Lorenzo-Gómez, and Ruiz-Navarro 2010). Understandably other studies find that certain types of human capital are associated with the survival of the firm (Criaco et al 2014). More general or industry level human capital may actually lower survival prospects by opening up further employment opportunities, which raises the performance threshold that must be achieved to remain entrepreneurially active (Criaco et al 2014).…”

“…This means that exit can be made more or less likely through a factor affecting performance and/or the threshold of performance. Given that the threshold of performance is hard to capture, studies have generally considered the overall effect of factors on performance and the threshold through survival (Criaco et al 2014;Di Tienne and Cardon 2012).…”

Factores del servicio y del perfil del emprendedor que inciden en la superviviencia empresarial: una revisión crítica

“…Finalmente, Arribas y Vila (2007) argumentan que este hecho puede mostrar una deficiencia en la formación que actualmente ofrece el sistema educativo español para formar las habilidades requeridas para que las empresas sobrevivan. De hecho, en estudios recientes, Criaco et al (2013) y Rotger, Gørtz y Storey (2012) muestran que la formación en temas específicos de emprendimiento incrementa la probabilidad de supervivencia en el caso de las empresas creadas por estudiantes universitarios.…”