University spin-offs and the “performance premium”

The creation of spin-off companies is often promoted as a desirable mechanism for transferring knowledge and technologies from research organizations to the private sector for commercialization. In the promotion process, policymakers typically treat these “university” spin-offs like industry start-ups. However, when university spin-offs involve an employment transition by a researcher from the not-for-profit sector, the creation of a university spin-off is likely to impose a higher social cost than the creation of an industry start-up. To offset this higher social cost, university spin-offs must produce a larger stream of social benefits than industry start-ups, a performance premium. This paper outlines the arguments explaining why the social costs of entrepreneurship are likely to be higher for academic entrepreneurs, and empirically investigates the existence of a performance premium using a sample of German start-up companies. We find that university spin-offs exhibit a performance premium of 3.4 % points higher employment growth over industry start-ups. The analysis also shows that the performance premium varies across types of academic entrepreneurs and founders’ academic disciplines.     

A founding-team model of creating a venture's culture

As many new ventures are started by founding teams, it is these founding teams that likely engage in creating their venture's culture. We draw on theories of cultural dynamics and the literature on team cognitive diversity to investigate the creation of a new venture's culture. Specifically, we theorize how a founding team's cognitive diversity impacts the team's production of cultural information and the transmission of that information throughout the venture. Cognitive diversity directly influences the founding team's production of cultural information by shaping the diversity of the information set and the speed of its production. Moreover, cognitive diversity can give rise to faultlines within the venture, impacting how venture members interpret cultural information. Importantly, our model suggests a complex interplay between the production and interpretation of cultural information. Understanding culture creation in new ventures is important because a new venture's culture shapes its legitimacy and thus its access to stakeholder resources for venture emergence.     

The impact of network capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation on university spin-off performance

Drawing on a database of 149 university spin-offs, we investigated the impact of network capability (NC), defined as a firm's ability to develop and utilize inter-organizational relationships, and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on organizational performance. Not only do the results suggest that a spin-off's performance is positively influenced by its NC, but the findings also indicate that a spin-off's EO fosters competitive advantages. Although no direct relationship is apparent between EO and sales growth, sales per employee, or profit attainment, moderated hierarchical regression analyses reveal that NC strengthens the relationship between EO and spin-off performance. In sum, our research shows that a spin-off's organizational propensities and processes that enhance innovation, constructive risk taking, and proactiveness in dealing with competitors per se do not enhance growth and secure long-term survival. However, we found that NC moderates the relationship between EO and organizational performance.     

Do they matter? The role of non-academics in the internationalization of academic spin-offs

Internationalization and academic entrepreneurship have been receiving a lot of attention not only in academic research but also in policy practice. While academic spin-offs suffer from limited resources and lack of entrepreneurial skills, they often penetrate international market through their innovative products and technology since the very early years of their establishment. In the literature, little attention has been paid to explicitly examine the internationalization process of academic spin-offs as well as the role of non-academics. In order to investigate the impact of non-academics on the performance of spin-offs, we carried out an empirical analysis of 126 Spanish spin-offs which were divided into two market categories, international and domestic market. With regard to the percentage of non-academics in founding team, we found that their impact was more relevant to the performance goals than to innovativeness. On the other hand, the size of non-academic networks contributed significantly not only to the performance goals but also to innovation. However, we did not find a significant relationship between the strength of non-academic networks and the performance goals and innovativeness of the international spin-offs. Overall, we concluded that the role of non-academics was crucial for supporting the internationalization of the spin-offs.     

Spin-offs from research centers at a research university

Spin-offs are a means of technology transfer from a parent organization that represent a mechanism for creating jobs and new wealth. We investigated 6 of the 19 spin-offs from the 55 research centers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1997. The Albuquerque area in Northern New Mexico is rich in technology, thanks to the presence of three large Federal R&D laboratories and the University of New Mexico. University administrators and community leaders envision a future technopolis (technology city), but achieving this goal will be difficult, given the lack of needed infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and venture capital in the Albuquerque region.Nevertheless, in the early 1990s the amount of research funding at UNM increased at a faster rate than at other U.S. research universities (total research funding rose to $197 million in 1996). Most of this increase (about 85%) took place through the efforts of UNM's 55 research centers, which are multidisciplinary units supported mainly by funding from federal and state government agencies, private companies, and foundations. The research centers transfer technological innovations across the university's boundary via various mechanisms, including spin-offs.A spin-off is a new company that is formed (1) by individuals who were former employees of the parent organization (a UNM research center in the present case), and (2) a core technology that is transferred from the parent organization. A previous study by the present authors identified 71 spin-offs from the three federal R&D laboratories in New Mexico. The fact that high-technology spin-offs are occurring in New Mexico, and at an increasing rate, suggests that a technopolis may be getting underway. In recent years the University of New Mexico and the federal R&D laboratories have established organizational and procedural mechanisms intended to encourage spin-offs and other types of technology transfer such as patenting and technology licensing.An important factor in the success of a spin-off company is the degree of support that it receives from its parent organization. The six UNM spin-offs of study here experienced few conflicts with their parent, in each case a university-based research center. However, lengthy negotiations with university officials over intellectual property rights to a spin-off's core technology were often involved. The director of a spin-off's parent research center usually played a key role in the spin-off process. Often the university research center continued to provide laboratory facilities and access to research equipment to the spin-off. Generally, both the spin-off and the parent organization perceived of the spin-off process as a win-win situation (which might not be the case when the parent is a private company and the spin-off becomes a competitor).In the present investigation we identify two types of spin-offs: (1) planned, when the new venture results from an organized effort by the parent organization, and (2) spontaneously occurring, when the new company is established by an entrepreneur who identifies a market opportunity and who founds the spin-off with little encouragement (and perhaps with discouragement) from the parent organization. Both types of spin-offs were represented in the present study. UNM professors, directors of the parent research centers, and others played important roles in instigating three of the six spin-offs, while the other three were launched mainly by entrepreneurs.Spin-offs represent an important mechanism for technology transfer, as a spin-off is typically founded around a core technological innovation that was initially developed at the parent organization. One reason that a research university is a vital ingredient in a technopolis is because of the considerable role that university-based research centers play in spinning-off new ventures. Stanford University in Silicon Valley, MIT on Route 128, and the University of Texas in Austin are all examples of this important relationship. The University of New Mexico is a smaller research university than Stanford, MIT, or Texas, but it is beginning to play a similar role in the spin-off process. If indeed a technopolis eventually develops in Albuquerque, perhaps in 10 or 20 years, lessons may be learned about the roles of a research university and its research centers (and federal R&D laboratories), in contributing to regional economic development.     

An Entrepreneurial System View of New Venture Creation

This paper reports the results of a two-phase study that explores new venture creation within the context of an entrepreneurial system. First, a genealogy of high-technology companies is presented depicting a high spin-off rate resulting from the presence of seven incubator organizations. Second, semantic structure analysis ( Spradley 1980 ) based on semi-structured interviews with founders is used to develop a taxonomy. This taxonomy depicts the relationship among components in one entrepreneurial system, Boulder County, Colorado, that encourages, supports, and enhances regional entrepreneurial activity. Findings indicate that incubator organizations, spin-offs, informal and formal networks, the physical infrastructure, and the culture of the region are related uniquely and interact to form a system conducive for dense high-technology entrepreneurial activity. Additionally, greater rates of new venture formation were found following critical moments in the life of incubator organizations.     

A process study of entrepreneurial team formation: the case of a research-based spin-off

This paper describes how a team of entrepreneurs is formed in a high-tech start-up, how the team copes with crisis situations during the start-up phase, and how both the team as a whole and the team members individually learn from these crises. The progress of a high-tech university spin-off has been followed up from the idea phase until the post-start-up phase. Adopting a prospective, qualitative approach, the basic argument of this paper is that shocks in the founding team and the position of its champion co-evolve with shocks in the development of the business.     

The role of the entrepreneurial team and the board of directors in the internationalization of academic spin-offs

This study addresses the roles of the entrepreneurial team and the board of directors in the internationalization of academic spin-off companies. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of 109 spin-offs from Norwegian academic institutions. The findings suggest that academic spin-offs are more likely to achieve both international strategic alliances and international sales with entrepreneurial teams having industrial experience that is both highly homogeneous (where each member has work experience in the same industry) and highly diverse (where each member has work experience in different industries) and board members that have diverse functional backgrounds. Firms that are less dependent on networking by board members to increase legitimacy and build relationships with potential foreign customers are more likely to achieve international sales.     

Task Conflict,Narcissism and Entrepreneurial Capability in Teams Planning a Business: A Moderated Moderation Approach to Explaining Business Planning Performance

Drawing on the dynamic self‐regulatory processing model of narcissism, we hypothesize that in teams planning a business, task conflict relates positively to business planning performance and that this link is reinforced by the team's narcissism. By integrating aspects of human capital theory, this brighter side of narcissism is amplified where the narcissism is aligned with entrepreneurial capability and the team members' belief in their entrepreneurial capability. The findings of the moderated moderation analysis examining 66 teams of entrepreneurship students support the study's assumptions and provide meaningful implications for social psychology and personality researchers in entrepreneurship.     

The entrepreneurial journey as an emergent hierarchical system of artifact-creating processes

Entrepreneurial ‘process’ perspectives explain the events of an entrepreneurial journey in terms of mechanisms, such as ‘effectual logic’, ‘bricolage’, ‘dynamic creation’, ‘opportunity tension’ and ‘enactment’. Process theorists, however, have not as yet developed an analytical framework that explains an entrepreneurial event in relation to the entrepreneurial journey as the unit of analysis. Building on Sarasvathy's (2003, 2008) and Venkataraman et al.'s (2012) conception of entrepreneurship inquiry as a ‘science of the artificial’ (Simon, 1996), we explain how this research gap can be addressed by conceptualizing the entrepreneurial journey as an ‘emergent hierarchical system of entrepreneurial artifact-creating processes’. From this perspective, entrepreneurial events can be explained in relation to the endogenous dynamics of prior patterns of artifact emergence. We discuss some research implications of focusing on artifact emergence as a key unit of analysis in process theory development.     

Ethics-focused dynamic capabilities: a small business perspective

Our analysis of survey data of US small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) explores (1) whether firms have ‘dynamic’ capabilities that change their ethics-focused operational capabilities; (2) what effects those dynamic capabilities have on both ethical and competitive performance; and, (3) whether those effects are contingent on a firm’s entrepreneurial characteristics. Our survey reveals that about a quarter of SMEs self-report high levels of these ethics-focused dynamic capabilities. We use hierarchical OLS to analyze the survey data to find that the general effect of these capabilities is positive on an SME’s ethical performance, and that the performance effects are contingent on an SME’s degree of entrepreneurial orientation and sensitivity to changes in the business context. The main implication is that the extent of heterogeneity in types, roles, and performance effects of ‘higher-than-operations-level’ capabilities is likely underestimated in current dynamic capabilities theory and application.     

Opportunity recognition and international new venture creation in university spin-offs—Cases from Denmark and Ireland

Extant research suggests that the founder’s activities and interactions are considered pivotal in driving the opportunity recognition process leading to international new venture emergence. This paper aims to explore the opportunity recognition process and international new venture emergence in the context of university high-technology spin-offs that are internationally market driven from inception. University spin-offs (USOs) are defined as ‘new firms created to exploit commercially some knowledge, technology or research results developed within a university’ (Pirnay et al., Small Bus Econ 21:355–369, 2003). To address this inquiry, this study imports theory from the entrepreneurship literature on organizational emergence, opportunity recognition, effectuation and the principle of individual self-efficacy. Drawing on empirical case data from four case USOs from Denmark and Ireland, this paper finds that the inventor-founders are typically engaged in opportunity recognition processes that are characterized as creative, driven by scientific innovations. It is indicated that the process of USO emergence and continuous development involves activities and interactions similar to typical international new ventures. The scientific knowledge that created opportunities for the emergence of INV-USOs across our cases endorses the view that innovation and internationalization are strongly correlated. Insights are provided on inventor-founders’ entrepreneurial intention demonstrated through activities and interactions in the on-going processes of creating the USO. Findings further highlight that self-efficacy of the inventor-founder(s) and access to specific resources (means at hand) are salient determinants for international new ventures to materialize. The study concludes with a proposed conceptual framework for further research on the creation of INV-university spin-offs. Conclusions and implications are drawn at the end of the article.     

Are entrepreneurs made on campus? The impact of entrepreneurial universities and graduates’ human capital on graduates’ occupational choice

Many universities are becoming more entrepreneurial by supporting spin-off activities of students and staff, installing entrepreneurship programs and creating networks with local entrepreneurs. But how do these activities affect university graduates’ employment choices? By utilizing different data sources, this question is addressed in the present study. Information collected through a large-scale graduate survey, implemented by the International Centre for Higher Education Research-Kassel, is combined with a ranking system of entrepreneurial orientation among German universities and data on the workforce within the university region. Empirical analysis suggests that the likelihood of entering self-employment is significantly positively related to the entrepreneurial orientation of the university. On the individual level, work experience prior to studying increases the likelihood of graduates entering self-employment while no robust influence of human capital indicators is detected.     

Entrepreneurial visions in founding teams: Conceptualization,emergence, and effects on opportunity development

Prior research on entrepreneurial visions has typically taken a leadership perspective and explored how the founders’ future images of their ventures motivate themselves and followers. Drawing on an upper echelon perspective and longitudinal case studies of eight founding teams, this study finds that founders’ entrepreneurial visions do not only capture the future images of their ventures, but also the future images of the founders’ relationship with it. Taking into account this personal aspect of visions, we show that within a founding team, the members’ visions can be incongruent, i.e., they cannot be realized simultaneously within the current venture. While our data reveal that vision incongruence tends to occurs when all team members perceive to have an equal status, vision congruence emerges when the attributed status in the team is heterogeneous. Founding teams with more congruent visions tend to follow a focused opportunity development path, while those with less congruent visions tend to follow a comprehensive opportunity development path. Depending on the teams’ behaviors in the face of challenging situations either path can lead to successful opportunity commercialization or failure. We discuss the implications of these findings for the literatures on entrepreneurial visions, opportunities, and upper echelons.     

From entrepot to entrepot via merchant manufacturing: adaptive mechanisms,organizational capabilities and the structure of the Hong Kong economy

The economy of Hong Kong has developed a mix of adaptation mechanisms which has yielded spectacular performance. In one part of the mix, small Chinese family businesses provide an ‘entrepreneurial’ adaptation mechanism which reacts quickly to price signals. Elsewhere ‘peak organizations’ with deep hierarchies have coordinated activities which involve scale and scope. This has led to the development of a particular and restricted set of organizational capabilities which are ill suited to the ‘technological upgrading’ strategies that are frequently recommended for Hong Kong manufacturing. It is unlikely that such upgrading will take place, or that Hong Kong will become a technological development centre for manufacturing industry in the People's Republic of China.     

Member Experience,Use of External Assistance and Evaluation of Business Ideas

How do members' experience and external interactions shape evaluation of the team's business idea? With a sample of 74 teams that participated in a business idea competition, we showed that experience as defined by size, mean work experience, and assistance from individuals with business founding experience related positively to the teams' business idea evaluations. The benefits of external founders are more pronounced for smaller than for larger teams. Having a founder in the team did not relate to idea evaluation but interaction effects showed smaller sized teams had worse evaluations if they did not have a founder in the team.     

Customer retention in sports organization marketing: examining the impact of team identification and satisfaction with team performance

Over the past two decades, relationship marketing efforts have assumed a prominent role in sports organization marketing. A sports organization that successfully implements relationship marketing programmes is able to develop long‐term relationships with its fans, thus increasing the likelihood of customer retention. This study examines customer retention in sports organization marketing by considering the impact of team identification and satisfaction with team performance on four fan consumption behaviours: in‐person attendance, media‐based attendance, purchase of team merchandise and word‐of‐mouth communication related to the team. Survey data were collected from 300 fans of more than 40 professional and collegiate teams involved in seven sports. Results suggest that both team identification and satisfaction with team performance impact multiple consumption behaviours, as represented by fans' intentions to engage in future consumption. Team identification was found to have the greater impact on consumption behaviours, suggesting that a sports organization's continuing efforts to bond with its fans may provide greater benefits than efforts to improve the team's competitive performance.     

TMT社会网络、公司创业与企业绩效关系研究

拥有大量内外部信息资源的高管团队(TMT),其社会网络不但可以提供公司创业的机会来源,也是企业现在绩效和未来绩效的影响因素。TMT的社会网络只有通过公司创业机制才能转化为企业绩效的价值创造过程。中国背景下的实证研究显示:TMT社会网络、公司创业都与企业绩效正相关,对于企业而言,要高度重视通过管理手段激励整个高管团队的所有成员去构建有效的内外部社会网络;公司创业的价值增值中介作用也得到证实,公司创业发挥着重要的资源整合作用,有价值的TMT内外部社会网络只有充分融入企业的产品或服务创新,以及深层次的战略更新过程中,为企业的价值增值服务,才能转变为企业绩效。     

Exploring the Networking Characteristics of New Venture Founding Teams: A Stdy of Italian Academic Spin-off

This paper deals with newly established ventures and their relations with external agents. The founding teams' intention to set up relations with external agents and their frequency of interaction with external agents are addressed as two features that are likely to lead to the success of academic spin-off companies. Empirical analysis is based on a data set of 40 Italian academic spin-offs. The external agents who are most likely to have interactions with academic spin-off companies are first identified. Two research hypotheses are then put forward: (a) that the intention of the founding teams to set up relations with external agents is influenced by the degree of articulation of roles and the completeness of the founding teams; (b) that the founding teams' frequency of interaction with external agents is influenced by the frequency of interaction with external agents of the research groups of origin and by their scientific and technological excellence. Some remarks are then made on the role that universities play in helping new ventures to set up relations with external agents.