Success Factors in Canadian Academic Spin-Offs

In the last 20 years Canadian university produced some 1200 spin-off companies, out of which 5–6% are still independent and quoted in the stock exchanges. This study analysed these public companies in terms of industry, technologies, regions, universities and growth. The paper finds that the growing companies of the 2000s are most often not in biotechnology, in spite of their frequent support by venture capital. Conversely spin-off companies that grew had often obtained patents and received support from the Industrial Research Assistance Program, a support program for R&D in smaller firms, managed by the National Research Council of Canada.