Do graduated university incubator firms benefit from their relationship with university incubators?

Business incubators have become a popular policy option and economic development intervention tool. However, recent research shows that incubated firms may not benefit significantly from their incubator relationships, and may even be more vulnerable to failure post departure (graduation) from an incubator. These findings suggest that the impact of business incubation on new venture viability may be contingent on the type of support offered by an incubator and attributes of business environments within which incubation services are provided. Incubation services that protect and isolate ventures from key resource dependencies may hinder venture development and increase subsequent vulnerability to environmental demands. Alternatively, incubation services that help ventures connect and align with key resource dependencies are likely to promote firm survival. We propose that incubators vary in the services and resources they offer, and that university incubators typically provide greater connectivity and legitimacy with respect to important contingencies associated with key industry and community stakeholders. This leads us to propose that university affiliation is an important contingency that affects the relationship between firms’ participation in incubators and their subsequent performance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this contingency by examining whether firms graduating from university incubators attain higher levels of post-incubation performance than firms participating in non-university affiliated incubators. We test this by evaluating the performance of a sample of graduated firms associated with the population of university-based incubators in the US contrasted against the performance of a matched cohort of non-incubated firms. The analysis uses an enhanced dataset that tracks the number of employees, sales, and the entry and graduation (departure) points of incubated firms from a university incubation program, so as to delineate the scope of influence of the incubator.     

The effect of university culture and stakeholders’ perceptions on university–business linking activities

The present work discusses the effects of university culture and structure on university–business relations, focusing on knowledge transfer activities. It puts forward the thesis that when links between university and business are introduced into the university system as a turn-key proposition rather than as developmental process, the prevailing university culture and structure will exert resistance against change and will oppose the creation of appropriate structures to promote them, with deleterious effects for the university.

Becoming an entrepreneurial university? A case study of knowledge exchange relationships and faculty attitudes in a medium-sized,research-oriented university

This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on the entrepreneurial university by mapping knowledge exchange relationships of entrepreneurial faculty in a comprehensive manner and also capturing faculty attitudes towards measures taken by the university administration to promote entrepreneurship. We report on an exploratory study of Sussex University, a medium-sized, research-oriented university, which launched technology transfer activities in the mid-1990s. Our results show that, in spite of a comparatively late start, a considerable number of researchers engage in knowledge exchange processes with industry and other non-academic partners. We present evidence that suggests faculty in the social sciences and humanities as well as natural sciences and engineering maintain links to industrial partners, including multinational corporations. Furthermore, our observations indicate that schools differ in the way their faculty engage in university–industry collaborations. Further differences can be observed with respect to faculty attitudes towards technology transfer and awareness of the university’s respective codes of practice.

Why teach crime scene management to forensic university students?

Despite enhanced forensic collaborations between law enforcement agencies and universities, crime scene management remains a domain seen more as technical than scientific, largely carried out by sworn police officers qualified as scene of crime officers (SOCOs), confining forensic graduates to specialized expertise fields. Under such circumstances, we must ask ourselves why and how do we provide a generalised dedicated course to academic pupils who are not primarily intended to join such teams, excepting sometimes to assist them on a specialized field (explosion, arson, etc.)?Currently in Quebec, forensic graduates cannot join crime scene units attached to police forces, mainly because of unions, which argue about the need to be an experienced police officer before qualifying for a crime scene course.Based on the operational experience of the author, who created the foundational graduate forensic programme in Quebec, Canada, this paper will explain why such an academic course is still of high importance, its rationale within an academic curriculum, its goal and its implementation. Challenges are still to be considered, but selected feedback from students who understood that the aim of this course is distinct from their formal support disciplines, encourage such an approach.     

The university’s unknown knowledge: tacit knowledge, technology transfer and university spin-offs findings from an empirical study based on the theory of knowledge

The assumption that research findings provide the basis for spin-off projects at universities has been found up to now in literature and the practice. Supported by the theory of knowledge, the empirical study presented here shows that this idea is too limited. Only 45 % of spin-offs use codified research findings from the university, while 55 % use tacit knowledge that was acquired at the university. These spin-offs use knowledge beyond research findings, starting companies in the shadow of publications by academic institutions and drawing from the realm of tacit knowledge at universities. Tacit start-up knowledge is present in all scientific disciplines of universities; even the exploitation- and patent-oriented engineering sciences account for almost half of the start-ups. Start-ups based on tacit knowledge lead to both technology-oriented and service companies. They also do not differ from codified knowledge-based start-ups in the number of jobs that they create. The discovery of the tacit knowledge spin-offs as a phenomenon has an entire series of implications for the practice and research. The tacit start-up potential was not considered previously in the university promotion instruments and start-up consultancies. Furthermore, we can assume that tacit knowledge-based start-ups are only an initial indication of the innovation potential within the tacit realm of knowledge for universities and research institutes.     

Why do academics engage with industry? The entrepreneurial university and individual motivations

The debate on the entrepreneurial university has raised questions about what motivates academic scientists to engage with industry. This paper provides evidence based on survey data for a large sample of UK investigators in the physical and engineering sciences. The results suggest that most academics engage with industry to further their research rather than to commercialize their knowledge. However, there are differences in terms of the channels of engagement. Patenting and spin-off company formation are motivated exclusively by commercialization whilst joint research, contract research and consulting are strongly informed by research-related motives. We conclude that policy should refrain from overly focusing on monetary incentives for industry engagement and consider a broader range of incentives for promoting interaction between academia and industry.     

The role of information asymmetry in the market for university–industry research collaboration

This study concerns the market for research collaboration between industry and universities. It presents an analysis of the population of all Italian university–industry collaborations that resulted in at least one international scientific publication between 2001 and 2003. Using spatial and bibliometric analysis relating to scientific output of university researchers, the study shows the importance of geographic proximity in companies’ choices of university partner. The analysis also reveals inefficiency in the market: in a large proportion of cases private companies could have chosen more qualified research partners in universities located closer to the place of business.     

Scientist or Entrepreneur? Identity centrality,university entrepreneurial mission,and academic entrepreneurial intention

The Journal of Technology Transfer - The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between identity centrality and entrepreneurial intention. Based on a survey of 275 academic scientists...     

How are companies paying for university research licenses? Empirical evidence from university-firm technology transfer

The Journal of Technology Transfer - The knowledge economy has put the triple helix cooperation at the heart of economic growth. In this current paradigm, innovation is vital to firm survival, and...     

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

In 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.     

Grace,gold, or glory? Exploring incentives for invention disclosure in the university context

What motivates university scientists to identify practical applications for their research results and consider having them patent-protected? A wealth of research points towards a complex blend of factors, including organizational antecedents, social norms and personal-level expectations. Few studies, however, have attempted to investigate the effect of concrete incentives from the perspective of individual scientists’ decision-making. In this paper, we operationalize the propensity to patent and commercialize research results as the intention to submit an invention disclosure filing. We use scenario-based conjoint analysis to capture university scientists’ preference structures for different incentive policies. Results indicate that direct and indirect financial incentives are dominant drivers. In addition, a grace period that would allow for patenting and publishing in parallel and the inclusion of patents in academic performance assessments are worth considering, whereas the specific setup of the technology transfer organization and public recognition of achievements in form of an award appear to have limited effect. However, preferences for incentives and hence their effectiveness vary significantly across academic disciplines and ranks as well as with scientists’ working experience, patenting experience and research orientation. On this basis, we can derive more qualified recommendations for incentive system design.     

Closing the divide: accelerating technology commercialization by catalyzing the university entrepreneurial ecosystem with I-Corps™

In recent years, universities have seen an increasing amount of activity in entrepreneurship and commercialization, not only for students, but for faculty as well. Traditionally, these initiatives have been separate, such that programs and curriculum have been focused on supporting just students or just faculty. In 2012, the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the NSF I-Corps? program, an innovative funding program that not only offered principle investigators (PIs) funding, but also exposed PIs to an innovation/entrepreneurship curriculum as well. The University of Michigan (U-M) was one of the first two NSF I-Corps? Nodes funded in 2012 and has leveraged the program to catalyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This paper describes the growth of this entrepreneurial ecosystem since 1983, the call of entrepreneurship in the U-M College of Engineering and describes the role the U-M NSF I-Corps? program has played across the university. The paper concludes with lessons learned and recommendations to administrators and policy makers considering more active promotion of academic entrepreneurship and commercialization in universities.     

Dynamics of collaboration in university–industry partnerships: do initial conditions explain development patterns?

The aim of this paper is to investigate how research partnerships between firms and universities emerge and evolve over time, focusing on the relationship between initial conditions and development trajectories. Based on literature on alliances and a comparative case study, the paper presents propositions to explore the links between initial conditions, modes of collaboration and development pathways. The empirical study indicates that there is no straightforward link between initial conditions and development of partnerships over time. Being embedded in a network makes it easier to form relationships and has a positive influence of the early, set-up phase of collaboration, but has limited impact on long term development of partnerships. The data also illustrates the weak side of networks; they are efficient mechanism for forming relationships but in some cases represent weak commitment to partnerships over time, leading to low or symbolic firm involvement and high firm exit rates.     

Who is the academic entrepreneur? The role of graduate students in the development of university spinoffs

Academic entrepreneurship, the establishment of new companies based on technologies derived from university research, is a well-recognized driver of regional and national economic development. For more than a decade, scholars have conceptualized individual university faculty as the primary agents of academic entrepreneurship. Recent research suggests that graduate students also play a critical role in the establishment and early development of university spinoff companies, but the nature of their involvement through the entrepreneurial process is not yet fully understood. Employing a case study approach, this paper investigates the role of graduate students in early-stage university spinoff companies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We find that graduate students play role similar to that of individual faculty entrepreneurs in university spinoffs, both in terms of making the initial establishment decision and in reconfiguring the organization for marketable technology development. We also find that student entrepreneurs face unique challenges involving conflicts with faculty advisors and other students.     

How to acquire legitimacy and become a player in a regional innovation ecosystem? The case of a young university

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Universities are recognized as a particular type of public organization. Due to the important role they are acquiring in the development of regional economies,...     

Chasing two hares at once? Effect of joint institutional change for promoting commercial use of university knowledge and scientific research

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Stimulating the university’s scientific research while encouraging the commercial use of the resulting knowledge is one of the foremost missions to...     

The management of industry–university joint research projects: how do partners coordinate and control R&D activities?

Benefits derived from industry–university joint research projects (e.g., competitive advantages for firms, opportunities for field experimentation, the funding of academics’ activities and knowledge and technology transfer among partners) are strongly affected by the management system exploited to combine partners’ resources and tasks. Nevertheless, scholars have not paid great attention to management practices of collaborative research, leaving the best practices undefined. Aiming to fill this literature gap, this paper is a first attempt to open the black box of the management of the implementation stage of research and development (R&D) cooperation. The investigation, based on case studies, focuses on how participants of R&D cooperation coordinate and control their activities and what drives the selection of integrating mechanisms. The comparison of coordination and control systems implemented in six industry–university joint research projects highlights that planning and mutual adjustment practices are combined in different ways to manage R&D cooperation. Project and relationship characteristics affect the configuration of the management system. Task uncertainty leads to the decentralization of coordination and control practices, equivocality provides incentives for group coordination mode and reduces the need of informal ongoing monitoring and reciprocal interdependence among partners requires the exploitation of up-to-date project plans.