The est
ablishment of spin-offs to commerci
alise university knowledge/technology is
a potenti
al mech
anism to promote economic
and innov
ative development. Nevertheless, University Spin-Offs (USOs)
are usu
ally resource-constr
ained, especi
ally in obt
aining funding, limiting their growth. Venture C
apit
al (VC) investors pl
ay
an import
ant role in the fin
ancing
and the improvement of their m
an
ageri
al skills, which
are critic
al for firm growth. This p
aper
aims to explore both the effect of VC p
artners on the USOs’ growth
and the cross-n
ation
al differences in the role pl
ayed by them. To study both issues, we empiric
ally
an
alysed 516 Sp
anish
and 904 It
ali
an USOs cre
ated by 50 Sp
anish
and 57 It
ali
an universities, respectively,
and observed them between 2005
and 2013. The results showed different effects in the Sp
anish
and It
ali
an c
ases. While in Sp
ain the presence of VC p
artners positively
affects the USOs’ growth, in It
aly there is not
a signific
ant effect. This evidence c
alls for system
atic policies by public
administr
ations
and universities to foster USO growth.
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