Impact of public seed-funding on academic spin-offs

In the entrepreneurial economy of today, it is not the multinational firms which are the predominant driver in the creation of new knowledge, but the individual entrepreneur. Correspondingly, new ventures of small size are leading in commercializing new knowledge and transferring it to the market. This economic shift has been reflected by broad entrepreneurship policies, which aim at supporting the individual on the challenge of a high-growth start-up. However, prior experience shows that uniform entrepreneurship policies do not address the individual needs in different countries and ecosystems adequately. In this paper, we study the performance of academic spin-offs that received public funding from the German EXIST Business Start-Up Grant, a support program which aims at increasing the number of innovative start-ups from academia. Using a control group matching approach, we provide evidence that these start-ups are smaller by two full time equivalent employees, generate 1.7 times higher losses and have a nearly three times lower return on capital than science-based entrepreneurial firms with comparable characteristics in the first 5 years after foundation. We interpret these results to be primarily caused by the inferior financial contracting structure of the program compared to private venture capital funding and by the resulting adverse selection and incentive effects on the entrepreneurs. The evidence calls for rethinking public interventions in a national system of entrepreneurship.     

Models for commercialization of technology from universities and research laboratories

One of the most admired aspects of U.S. technology has been the ability to assimilate and commercialize new science and technology. In light of the rising international competition, there has been new emphasis placed on the commercialization of U.S. science and technology developed in the federal laboratories. While research and development remains the focus of these laboratories, passage of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Act of 1980 and the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 has resulted in a means to further the exploitation of discoveries, patents, and copyrights developed within the laboratories. The transfer of technology to industrial partners and users is a complex task for a federal laboratory. Since the interaction with industry, as well as market knowledge and assessment of the needs of business users are beyond the charter of a federal laboratory, new organizational mechanisms are required in order to obtain full commercial value from the laboratories' efforts. A study was instituted to examine selected organizational and policy arrangements for achieving the optimum commercial value from the science and technology research at the research and development laboratories sponsored and funded by the U.S. government.     

Managing and incentivizing research commercialization in Chinese Universities

Research shows that there are important institutional underpinnings for building university–industry linkages. This paper aims to understand how China is developing the relevant organizational structures and incentives in its universities. What academic institutions shape the scope and channels of university–industry linkages? What incentives do universities provide to encourage and facilitate faculty engagement with industry? My analysis is accomplished through content analysis of university documents and in-depth interviews with personnel in two top institutions—Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University, supplemented by official statistics. It shows that the hybrid organizational structure to manage technology transfer is a product of historical legacy and institutional learning—parts uniquely Chinese and parts adapted from the West. Faculty incentives also have varied effects. In spite of being enticed to disclose inventions and pursue commercialization, faculty remains keener on scholarly publications.     

Conditions for complex innovations: evidence from public organizations

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Despite the growing interest in understanding innovative activities, an important limitation of the current literature on innovation—both public and...     

Imprinting and the progeny of university spin-offs

In this paper, we employ a genealogical imprinting approach to theorize that experiences incurred during the founding of a first-generation university spin-off will influence future spin-off activity from the focal firm. We propose that firms that secure equity investment during their founding process will have a higher likelihood of generating subsequent spin-offs, and that this impact is conditional on the human capital of the founding team. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 101 first generation university spin-offs around a large US research university and their subsequent progeny firms. This study develops a new understanding of multi-generational spin-off processes in a region.     

公共政策的非公共性——公共政策研究的新视角

公共政策的公共性是公共政策的应然属性,公共政策的非公共性则表现为公共政策的实然属性。公共政策的非公共性主要表现为公共政策主体的垄断性和自利性、公共政策问题的主观性、公共政策目标的非公平性、公共政策信息的非共享性等。公共政策的非公共性为公共政策研究提供了一个新视角,对其研究具有重要的理论意义和现实意义。     

Differences between voluntary and public organizations: the behavior of hospitals in England and Wales

This study confronts the following questions: what are the conditions under which a society decides to do things in the public and voluntary nonprofit sectors, and in what ways do organizations behave differently, depending on whether they are in the public or the voluntary nonprofit sector? To address these questions, the study focuses on English and Welsh hospitals during the twentieth century but prior to the National Health Service. The study argues that as long as the sources of funding for public and voluntary organizations diverge, their behavior will diverge. Because English and Welsh voluntary hospitals prior to the National Health Service were heavily dependent on the voluntary sector for funding and the public hospitals were primarily dependent on the public sector for their funding, the data set is especially valuable for observing how divergent sources of funding influence the behavior of organizations.     

Cost-benefit analysis for global public–private partnerships: an evaluation of the desirability of intergovernmental organizations entering into public–private partnerships

This paper explains the use of cost-benefit analysis for the evaluation of global public–private partnerships that combine international intergovernmental organizations with national governments, businesses, and the non-profit organizations of civil society. The partnerships allocate resources to projects that are socially desirable from an international perspective, yet without the global partnerships will not be performed. Cost-benefit analysis can identify and compare the social and the private costs and benefits of the projects, thereby identifying cases where global public–private partnerships will provide socially desirable results when markets alone will not. Cost-benefit analysis can assess the necessity and the sufficiency of strategies proposed by the partnerships. The paper discusses modifications to cost-benefit analysis required for its use in evaluations of the global public–private partnerships, explaining the need for market-centered valuations, but also explaining the role of alternative social valuations.     

Determinants of national patent ownership by public research organisations and universities

This paper focuses on the question of whether the national production functions of patents owned by universities and public research organisations (PROs) differ. We use Eurostat patent and R&D data broken down by institutional sector for the European Union 27 and other countries in years 1982–2007, and we estimate dynamic panel models. The impact of R&D expenditure on patent ownership is higher for PROs than for universities. University patent ownership activity is dependent on business funding, while PRO patent ownership is not. We recommend a reversal of the current decline of PRO R&D expenditure and discuss whether PROs perform better at macroeconomic level vis a vis universities.     

Skilled unemployment and the creation of academic spin-offs: a recession-push hypothesis

Push factors associated with necessity entrepreneurship are largely neglected in the academic entrepreneurship literature. We link research on technology transfer to the literature on opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship, showing that the rate of academic spin-off creation is positively associated with the skilled unemployment rate. This longitudinal study of 559 spin-offs launched between 1999 and 2013, which controlled for several university- and context-level factors, showed that a higher level of unemployment reduced the probability of academic spin-off creation up to a threshold, beyond which the effect was reversed. By contrast, the relative skilled unemployment level was related positively to the probability of academic spin-off, particularly high-tech spin-off, creation. The relationship between the level of skilled unemployment and the creation of high-tech spin-offs was moderated positively by university research orientation and regional research and human capital intensity.     

Growth factors of research-based spin-offs and the role of venture capital investing

Using a proprietary dataset of 98 German research-based spin-offs (RBSOs) founded between 1997 and 2012, we assess which firm-specific and system-inherent factors are decisive for the spin-offs’ growth drawing on the resource-based view. Specifically, we aim to evaluate whether venture capital-backed RBSOs outperform non venture capital-backed RBSOs and whether a performance difference is explained by venture capitalists’ scouting or coaching capabilities. Our empirical findings detect that a homogeneous educational background of the academic entrepreneurs is positively associated with RBSO growth. A training provided by the parent research organization intended to develop entrepreneurial skills and to establish a network to outside professionals as well as the commercialization of a novel technology have a positive impact on firm growth. Concerning the involvement of venture capitalists, venture capital-backed RBSOs show a superior employment and revenue growth compared to non-venture capital-backed RBSOs. Our results support the view that this superior performance is attributed to venture capitalists’ coaching rather than their scouting capabilities.     

Interaction of criminological research and public policy

We examine here some of the interactions of research and policy over the past several decades. The “rehabilitation period” was effectively terminated by nulleffect evaluations of various rehabilitation techniques. The “just deserts-utilitarian period” was fed by research estimates of the deterrent and incapacitative effects of criminal justice activities. The more recent “overt politicization period” saw the earlier attempt to bring rational and theory-based perspectives to policy development replaced by much stronger emphasis on political concerns. We explore possible ways to reestablish the research-policy connections. This paper was prepared for the Plenary Session,Journal of Quantitative Criminology 10-Year Anniversary, 1995 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Boston, MA.     

标语与公共治理问题研究引论

标语是我国社会生活中一种极具代表性、极其重要的政治文化现象.标语在人们的日常生活中扮演了重要角色.在所有的标语中,政治类和政策性的标语占有重要的地位,应用非常广泛,在我国政治发展以及公共治理过程中起到了重要的宣传作用.同时,标语也反映出我国在不同时期的政策倾向.随着时代的发展,标语的形式、内容、语气等也随之发生了变化,即更加人性化、更符合时代要求、更具有人文气息.