Parting the ivory curtain: understanding how universities support a diverse set of startups

Universities are widely recognized as a critical source of technological innovation and are heralded for the entrepreneurial ventures cultivated within their walls. To date, most research has focused on academic entrepreneurship—new ventures that spin out of academic laboratories. However, universities also give rise to startups that do not directly exploit knowledge generated within academic laboratories. Such firms—and the societal and economic benefits they create—are an important contribution of modern universities. We propose a framework for understanding the full scope of university entrepreneurship and its driving factors, with the goal of providing scholars, university administrators, and policymakers with insights regarding the resources required to foster entrepreneurship from within the ivory tower.     

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.     

论政府职能转变对大学自治的回应——以管理与自主间的衡平为切入的研究

自治不仅仅是大学的一种权利,更是大学的责任担当。在政府职能转变的大趋势下,将对大学自治诉求的回应上升到制度环境供给的层面,需要通过对管理与自治间衡平机制的探索,从理念、职能和法律上的衡平以及大学内部的衡平,将有限的"大学发展资源"得以公平、有效地配置,从而真正回应大学在新时期渴望新发展的自治诉求。     

Student and graduate entrepreneurship: ambidextrous universities create more nascent entrepreneurs

Despite its importance, student and graduate entrepreneurship at universities has received limited scholarly attention. The literature on university entrepreneurship has mainly focused on university scientists who have founded their own firms or spin-offs that were created based on intellectual property that is owned by universities. This paper focuses on technology new ventures that are created by university students and new graduates and aims to investigate the linkages among university-level organizational competencies, the entrepreneurial competencies of nascent entrepreneurs and the number of start-ups that have been created by students and new graduates. Our argument is that universities are heterogeneous in their resources and competencies, and these organizational competencies are influential on students in the development of entrepreneurial competencies and hence in the creation of start-ups. Differences among universities have led to information asymmetries and variances in entrepreneurial competencies among students and graduates. This study uses two data sources at the university level from Turkey. The first is the Technoenterprise Funding Support Program, and the second is the Entrepreneurial and Innovative University Index. Our research covers 40 universities over 3 years from 2012 to 2014, and we apply a panel data methodology. Our research suggests that (1) ambidextrous universities that provide a good context for the exploration and exploitation of new knowledge support their students in the development of entrepreneurial competencies and in starting their own technology new ventures, (2) the traditional role of universities (research and teaching) is important for the creation of entrepreneurial universities and finally, (3) university entrepreneurship is path-dependent.     

Reframing the Role of Universities in the Development of Regional Innovation Systems

The role of universities in regional innovation has evolved over the last 20 years. This evolution has seen the emergence of a third role of universities that has re-shaped and transformed their two traditional functions of teaching and research. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for analysing variation in the roles performed by universities in the development of regional innovation systems. This framework is based on the triple helix model of university, industry, government relations, the literature on university engagement and the innovation systems literature, more generally. The framework is applied to a comparative study of three non core-metropolitan universities in Australia. A number of insights and issues are drawn in regard to conceptualising the role of universities in regional systems.     

Entrepreneurship from the Ivory Tower: Do Incentive Systems Matter?

There has been a paucity of research to date that has explored whether incentive systems—in the form of monetary payments to inventors, their department or institution, or to university technology transfer office (UTTO) personnel—affect entrepreneurial activities at U.S. universities. To shed light on whether financial incentives to scientists, their departments, and UTTO personnel effect entrepreneurial activity, we used both qualitative data (structured interviews with 128 UTTO directors) and quantitative data from surveys and databases available on the web. Our results show surprisingly and opposite to our theoretical predictions that incentives to scientists and to their departments are negatively related to entrepreneurial activity. In addition and consistent with theory-based predictions, pay to UTTO personnel is positively related to entrepreneurial activity. We conclude with a discussion that offers some implications to research, practice, and theory in the field of technology transfer.     

Why university inventions rarely produce income? Bottlenecks in university technology transfer

As intended, universities have gained ownership to an increased number of inventions from their labs after the enactment of Bayh-Dole act in 1980. But, how well are the universities taking advantage of the provisions of this Act? One aspect of this question is addressed empirically in this study. An analysis of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) periodic Licensing Activity Surveys of 1995–2004 indicated that the annual income generated by licensing university inventions was 1.7% of total research expenditure in 1995 and 2.9% in 2004. Some consider this and the rate of commercialization of university inventions to be too low. A premise of this study is that the slow rate of commercialization of university inventions may be due to the lack of adequate trained staff and inventions processing capacity in University Offices of Technology Transfer (UOTT). This paper describes an empirical study of the non-legal, technical, and legal invention processing capacity of US UOTT and its implications. A survey questionnaire was sent to 99 randomly selected US research universities. Seventy-five percent of the respondents mentioned shortage of staff for non-legal and legal processing of inventions. More than a third of the respondents claimed that, in 2006, they failed to process more than 26% of the inventions due to insufficient processing capacity in the UOTT. The study includes multiple regression models to estimate the effect of staffing on performance variables (i.e., Provisional Applications Filed, Patent [non-provisional] Applications and Licenses Executed) and “Inventions Not Processed” by the UOTTs due to staff/budget shortages. It is argued that, when short of staff and budget, UOTTs will be reduced to devoting their resources to ensuring patent applications are filed and patents are issued at the expense of marketing of inventions. Further, high-tech inventions are difficult to market because, often, there are no ready markets for them, especially if the inventor had no pre-invention contacts with a potential licensee. High-tech inventions originating from university labs may need market space/niche identification, new market creation, and the translation of the lab result into an “investor friendly” business plan; most UOTTs may be significantly short on these skills. Recommendations of this study are: first, an in-depth study of universities that are prolific in licensing inventions (40 or more licenses a year) is necessary to understand the reasons for their success in the context of UOTTs capacity to process inventions. Further, all federal agencies sponsoring university research must earmark a small percentage of each grant exclusively for commercialization purposes at the university. The paper offers multiple options for the effective use of these funds. The paper also offers several avenues for future research.     

How do universities shape founding teams? Social proximity and informal mechanisms of knowledge transfer in student entrepreneurship

This paper investigates informal mechanisms of knowledge transfer (KT) from a local university to entrepreneurial teams comprising students and recent graduates. While the extant literature on university-industry KT largely focuses on formal mechanisms aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial initiatives in high-tech (HT) sectors, it overlooks the effect of university-industry KT on nascent entrepreneurship in low-medium tech (LMT) sectors. To fill this gap in the literature, we carry out a mixed-method analysis that exploits a dataset of 154 new business ideas (and 535 team members) presented at a business plan competition in Rimini from 2010 to 2017. Our findings highlight a robust relationship between educational field and the R&D intensity of entrepreneurial projects: students take advantage of the knowledge acquired at university to develop entrepreneurial projects with higher technological content than those planned by non-graduates. Furthermore, the empirical evidence shows that the local university nurtures the formation of ties among students and recent graduates enrolled in the same courses and fosters their efforts to launch new ventures. Finally, the qualitative analysis identifies relevant and non-traditional mechanisms of KT that are being exploited by nascent entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas in the LMT and HT sectors.

     

Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: evidence from European entrepreneurial universities

The interesting relationship between entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness has been a major focus of academics, university managers, and policy makers during the past decades—in particular the role of institutions in the establishment of political, social, and economic rules-. For example, since the enactment of the US Bayh–Dole Act more than 30 years ago, many American cities and regions are increasingly viewing universities as potential engines of economic growth. In these new socioeconomic scenarios, the role of entrepreneurial universities is not only generates/transfers knowledge but also contributes/provides leadership for the creation of entrepreneurial thinking, actions, and institutions. Previous studies have shown the university’s role in economic development, but no empirical study has analyzed the entrepreneurial activity generated by university students per university at the country/regional level of analysis. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the university’s entrepreneurial activity on regional competitiveness. Adopting the institutional economics and the endogenous growth approaches, a proposed conceptual framework was developed and tested with structural equation modeling using data from 102 universities located in 56 NUTS II of 12 European countries. Our results evidenced that informal factors (e.g., attitudes, role models) have a higher influence on university entrepreneurial activity than formal factors (e.g., support measures, education and training). Our results also evidenced a higher contribution of universities on regional competitiveness, in particular, when we used social measures (talent human capital) instead economic measures (GDP per capita).     

The effects of cognitive distance in university-industry collaborations: some evidence from Italian universities

Universities have long been involved in knowledge transfer activities and are increasing their efforts to collaborate with industry. However, universities vary enormously in the extent to which they promote, and succeed in commercializing, academic research. In this paper, we focus on the concept of cognitive distance, intended as differences in the sets of basic values, norms and mental models in universities and firms. We assess the impact of cognitive distance on university-industry collaborations. Based on original data from interviews with 197 university departments in Italy, our analysis determines whether cognitive distance is perceived as a barrier to university-industry interactions, and estimates its effects on the frequency of their collaborations. Our results confirm that cognitive, albeit not affecting the probability of departments to collaborate with firms, significantly hinders the frequency of interactions.     

Relationship Dynamics between University Research Centers and Industrial Firms: Their Impact on Technology Transfer Activities

In this study we focus on relationship-oriented factors such as trust, geographic proximity, communication, and university policies for intellectual property rights (IPR), patents and licenses and examine how these factors influence the technology transfer process between university research centers and their industrial partners. Data for this study were collected from 189 industrial firms working with 21 research centers affiliated with prominent research-oriented universities in the US. Our results showed that trust, geographic proximity, and flexible university policies for IPR, patents, and licenses were strongly associated with greater technology transfer activities. The implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

University startups as a commercialization alternative: lessons from three contrasting case studies

A recent National Research Council (NRC) report (2011) recommends that universities must craft policies and allocate resources to enable more university startups because some university technologies will never be commercialized unless licensed to a startup. However, the creation of university startups requires personnel skills and programs not typically associated with an university Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). Estimates show that 75 % of university inventions are not licensed at all. The conclusions of this study include university policies to turn some them to fuel university startups. Carefully selected case studies of three contrasting universities reveal patterns of successful startup policies and performance. MIT’s case is an example of long-term success, the University of Colorado’s case is an example of medium-term success, and Auburn University’s case is an example of a new-comer to the scene. Lessons from the case studies include: the need for very early evaluation of all inventions for their startup potential, the need for pre-license seed funds through proof-of-concept programs to advance early-stage inventions to the next stage, and the need for OTT personnel skilled in enabling startups. NSF’s recent I-Corps program invests heavily in the training of potential enablers and entrepreneurs for commercializing university inventions. Based on the findings of this study, I-Corps must also invest in pre-license proof-of-concept programs to advance early-stage university inventions closer to the market. Implementing the conclusions of this study would also accomplish the recommendations of the 2011 NRC report cited above.     

Entrepreneurial universities in two European regions: a case study comparison

An entrepreneurial university is a natural incubator that tries to provide a supportive environment in which the university community can explore, evaluate and exploit ideas that could be transformed into social and economic entrepreneurial initiatives. Entrepreneurial universities are involved in partnerships, networks and other relationships to generate an umbrella for interaction, collaboration and co-operation. Rapid developments in science, the multidisciplinary nature of frontier research, legislative changes such as the Bayh–Dole Act and demands from business and society have shaped knowledge-based entrepreneurship within universities. Despite sharing similar historical backgrounds, economic conditions and cultural and social structures, entrepreneurial universities in most countries remain distinct from one another by their institutional arrangements, traditions and characteristics unique to each organization. Interestingly, no comparative research has been conducted to understand the similarities and differences of the conditioning factors and the outcomes/outputs of entrepreneurial universities in different regions that share similar social, economic and political conditions. This paper addresses this research deficit, adopting institutional economics and resource-based view. We compare entrepreneurial universities in two European regions (Spain and Ireland) using an in-depth qualitative approach based on multiple case studies (two Spanish universities and two Irish universities) between 2006 and 2010. The findings provide organizational practices and approaches relevant to the transformation process of other regional universities seeking to become entrepreneurial.     

Strategies for College Student Stalking Victims: Examining the Information and Recommendations Available

The college population is at a heightened risk for stalking victimization; yet it is suggested that college administrators have ignored stalking while focusing on other types of crimes, such as rape. Therefore, the present study seeks to examine the amount of attention universities are giving stalking as a crime that is a risk for their students. Additionally, this paper considers what types of information, recommendations, and strategies for effective responses to this type of victimization (if any) universities are providing to their students. In order examine university responses to stalking, a sample of Florida universities were observed by searching each university’s web page on the Internet. The data obtained from the university websites were analyzed through content analysis. Overall, it does in fact appear that Florida universities are addressing stalking in some manner, and the information they are providing to students is consistent with the current academic research.     

Community Engagement and Cultural Building Projects

This study explores whether community engagement efforts among nonprofit arts organizations pursuing major building projects are effective mechanisms for generating support from other organizations. Specifically, the study analyzes the degree to which context—such as the perceptions of the goals of community engagement efforts, competitive environment, and institutional characteristics—affect managers' perceptions of community engagement strategies. The study uses data on thirteen different cultural building projects in counties across the United States between 1994 and 2008 coupled with data on 444 arts organizations in the same county. The results of this study indicate that managers of nonprofit arts organizations perceive other organizations' community engagement efforts differently based on their own perceptions of the goals of those efforts, their own organization's competitive status, and perhaps even the age of their organization.     

The ivory tower approach to entrepreneurial linkage: productivity changes in university technology transfer

Academic entrepreneurship has been intensively applied to the area of technology innovation and diffusion in the US. Along with the promotion of innovative approaches, universities take advantage of knowledge spillovers from their laboratories to the market for both economic development and financial gains. This study assessed individual university productivity in technology transfer using feasible measures of multiple input–output combinations and data envelopment analysis to examine panel data gathered over the period 1999–2007. A major finding is that there was substantial growth in the average productivity of university technology transfer during this period. The average annual productivity gain in the 90 universities was over 30%, indicating that universities’ technology transfer activities were relatively efficient in terms of their input to output ratio. The positive shifts in average productivity changes were primarily due to the increasing frequencies of commercial outputs. This finding suggests that universities and public policy should pay attention to stimulate commercial activities rather than to increase investments for upgrading a next level of realistic, long-term strategies.     

Beyond town and gown: university economic engagement and the legacy of the urban crisis

University-driven land development and research into the amelioration of social problems are examples of the wider dimensions of economic engagement by large American research universities in metropolitan settings since 1949, and both dimensions are strongly conditioned by the experiences of universities and surrounding neighborhoods during the “urban crisis” of the 1960s. The rise of the modern American research university between 1950 and 1980 coincided with the economic decline of large American cities and the slide of their poorest neighborhoods into severe socioeconomic distress. The elite identification of the university as a force for economic and social change was a direct response to these urban upheavals, and the dynamics of its new role were fueled by the presumptions of postwar consensus liberalism. The urban crisis had an effect on town-gown relations that endured into the early twenty-first century, not least because it made local governments and universities allies rather than adversaries. Countering definitions of the role the university should take in economic development have arisen from a “town” comprised not of elected officials, but of community members from both within and outside of the university. The long shadow of urban crisis attests to the historical contingency of town-gown interactions and the usefulness of historical, case-based approaches to understanding the role of universities in urban and metropolitan economies.     

大学市场化行为的若干理论分析

大学市场化行为是人们对市场经济社会中大学行为变化的一种概括。大学市场化行为是指在市场经济社会中作为社会机构的大学遵循市场规则在与其他社会机构或个人发生商品交换关系时所产生的行为。市场经济社会是大学市场化行为产生的必要背景高等教育体制，高等教育传统等在大学市场化行为的形成过程中起着重要的影响作用。大学市场化行为对大学发展的影响首先是进一步改变了传统的大学观念，使大学更加贴近社会，贴近市场。市场化行为还促使大学之间的进一步分层、分化、使大学体系更加形式多样，丰富多彩。然而，市场化行为的增多将会助长在大学办学过程中的功利主义倾向，使大学行为染上浓厚的功利色彩。     

浙江高等教育发展的特色及启示

"九五"以来,浙江结合本省社会经济发展现状,以创新的观念、积极推进高等教育事业发展.在结构性特征方面突出表现为重点建设一流大学,支持发展社会力量办学,大力扶持高职教育的三元发展结构;杭州、宁波和温州三地作为浙江经济重镇,其高等教育发展思路各不相同,在地域特征方面表现出"并"在杭州,"建"在宁波,"借"在温州,各具鲜明特色;从结果来看,其高等教育发展的质量、规模和效益三个维度的效果明显,推动浙江向高等教育大省迈进.