Academic entrepreneurial hybrids: Accounting and accountability in the case of MegaRide

The current paper focuses on how multiple values shape accounting and accountability practices in hybrid organizations. It concentrates on the complex domain of academic spin-offs, more fully described as hybrid knowledge-intensive organizations, aiming to understand how accounting and accountability practices can be constitutive of hybrid academic entrepreneurial logics and identities and how these, in turn, favor the development of accounting and accountability practices. The study employs a theoretically informed in-depth single case study of the academic spin-off MegaRide of the University of Naples Federico II (Italy) for the period January to May 2021. The findings show how, in MegaRide, hybrid academic entrepreneurial identities emerged at both the individual and organizational levels, leading to successful technology transfer, with an undeniable impact on the local context and society.     

To each his own: Matching different entrepreneurial models to the academic scientist's individual needs

This paper presents a comparative case study of academic group leaders, active in three different scientific fields at a leading Swiss technical university. It examines the obstacles that prevent scientists from commercializing their technologies and how they can be reduced. Traditional models of technology transfer assume that scientists prefer either to 'go it alone' and become entrepreneurs (the inventor entrepreneur model) or to let go of their technologies to people interested in their commercialization (the surrogate entrepreneur model). The results of qualitative research suggest that these two models capture the extremes of a continuum populated by a variety of intermediate situations where scientists are unwilling completely to let go of their findings, but also do not want to become full time entrepreneurs. This results in considerable commercial potential that is unexploited. The Founding Angels approach might be a solution to this problem; it is designed for academics in these intermediate situations. The study contributes to the literature on university-industry technology transfer and should be useful for practitioners and scientists interested in maximizing the synergies between academia and industry.     

Backcasting for sustainability: Introduction to the special issue

In this introductory paper we introduce the special issue on “Backcasting for Sustainability”. We present briefly a historical background, and position backcasting in the wider context of future studies, in which it can be related to “normative forecasting” and normative scenarios. We reflect on the diversity and variety of backcasting studies and experiments, as presented in the ten papers for this special issue. After summarizing the papers we formulate a future research agenda.     

区域创新视角下大学衍生企业发展的影响因素——以日本为例

在以信息化、全球化、网络化为特征的新经济时代,技术和产品的生命周期越来越短。与传统的区域发展要素相比,科学技术知识流动的效率和方向成为了一个国家或区域竞争力高低的决定性要素。因而,大学衍生企业作为知识扩散和应用的结合体近年来备受区域政策制定者的青睐。文章从区域创新的视角出发,从宏观、中观、微观三个层面研究大学衍生企业发展的影响因素。研究表明,大学衍生企业的发展首先受到国家创新战略引领的制约;其次,受到区域技术人才来源环节的畅通及外部支持网络的影响;再次,大学衍生企业的可持续发展最终取决于与其它创新主体之间的网络互动化程度。     

影响大学衍生企业创建的内在因素：基于大学自身的视角

在考察促进大学衍生企业创建的原因时,许多学者倾向于从宏观层面（例如经济发展速度、市场潜力、政府政策、风险投资等）或者微观层面（例如企业家精神、企业家创业动机、企业家导向等）进行分析,而较少地立足于中观层面（大学自身）进行探究。为此,我们从大学自身的视角分析影响大学衍生企业创建的五个主要因素：学者型企业家、大学R＆D成果的商业化应用、与发明者的权益分配制度、大学孵化器、大学的创业资金政策。     

An empirical approach to the organisational determinants of spin-off creation in European universities

Given the importance in recent years of the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship in European universities, knowledge about determinants and performance of this technology transfer mechanism may have important managerial and policy implications. Applying the resource-based view at universities, we have tested the influence of five bundles of resources and capabilities on spin-off activity rates as well as on the performance of new spin-offs in a sample of seven European universities. These five bundles are: technology transfer policies and strategies; human capital; stock of technology; resources and capabilities of technology transfer offices; and support measures for academic entrepreneurship. Our results show that excellence of human capital and the presence of university-based financial support measures are strongly associated with both spin-off activity and performance. Another interesting finding is related to the availability of university-based non-economic support measures (training, counselling, etc.), which have no influence on spin-off activity but are significantly associated with performance of new spin-offs. We also discuss some interesting relationships between explanatory variables.     

Success factors of university-spin-offs: Regional government support programs versus regional environment

In recent years entrepreneurship research has increasingly interpreted new firm emergence in the light of the context the potential or real founder is living and working in. This is especially true for university spin-offs, a type of new firms that gives rise to great hopes for policymakers and technology transfer institutions. The aim of this paper is to analyze what is more influential: specific characteristics of the regional environment of the spin-off founder or public programs to support university spin-offs. Based upon a unique data set covering 11 years of data collection we were able to apply a control group approach with two different government support programs in two regional contexts. The results based upon ordinal regressions suggest that the regional context in which an individual starts a firm, has an impact on start-up success, but the fact that he/she had received government support has a lesser impact. To summarize: site specific factors matter, government support programs per se do not.     

学术印记、网络惯例与大学衍生企业产业嵌入

在大学衍生企业创业实践中,与产业主体间缺乏合作默契已成为大学衍生企业向产业网络嵌入的重要阻滞因素。针对该问题,基于网络惯例新视角,从大学衍生企业学术创生背景带来的异质性入手,构建“学术印记—网络惯例—产业网络嵌入”作用模型,探索技术动荡性的调节效应。运用多元回归分析等方法,对379家大学衍生企业调研数据进行实证检验。结果表明,大学衍生企业学术印记对网络惯例建立具有积极促进作用。同时,在向产业嵌入过程中,网络惯例对产业网络嵌入两个维度的作用机制存在差异,与结构嵌入存在倒U型关系,但正向促进关系嵌入。技术动荡性在“学术印记—网络惯例—产业网络关系嵌入”关系中具有正向调节作用。     

企业空间集聚的成因分析

企业空间集聚是当今世界区域经济发展的重要特色。本文从同行业和不同行业两个角度分别探讨了企业空间集聚的成困,并实例分析了徐州市金山桥开发区企业集聚体的形成与发展。     

Corporate Restructurings: A Comparison of Equity Carve-outs and Spin-offs

In this paper we examine divisive corporate restructurings in which a firm takes a subsidiary public. Using a sample of 64 spin-off and 76 carve-out firms during 1991–1997, we find firms carve-out subsidiaries with higher market demand. These subsidiaries are more frequently in related industries than spin-offs. The carve-out firms are also more likely to be cash constrained and have lower marginal tax rates, but are not likely to be considering financial reporting synergies when structuring the divestiture. These results provide evidence that factors impacting the divestiture choice related to Master Limited partnerships, as studied previously, differ when divesting a corporate subsidiary.