University capabilities in facilitating entrepreneurship: A longitudinal study of spin-off ventures at mid-range universities

This paper investigated how universities facilitate the process of spin-off venture formation based on academic research. Building on a capability perspective, we add to the literature on university characteristics and resources by exploring how the university context impacts the entrepreneurial process. We based our study on two mid-range universities and followed the start-up process of four spin-off ventures. Based on the results of our longitudinal study, we propose a set of three university capabilities that facilitate the venture-formation process: (1) creating new paths of action, (2) balancing both academic and commercial interests, and (3) integrating new resources. Each capability is particularly important for specific phases in the venturing process. Our findings suggest that these capabilities are dependent on prior spin-off experience and reside within several actors both inside and outside of the university. Furthermore, universities with weaknesses in the identified areas can take strategic action to develop these capabilities to some degree.

[1]  Joshua B. Powers,et al.  University Start-Up Formation and Technology Licensing with Firms that Go Public: A Resource-Based View of Academic Entrepreneurship , 2005 .

[2]  R. Yin.  Yin, Robert K., Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1994. , 1994 .

[3]  Mike Wright,et al.  Mid-range universities' linkages with industry: Knowledge types and the role of intermediaries , 2008 .

[4]  S. Shane.  Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities , 2000 .

[5]  Nicos Nicolaou,et al.  Social Networks in Organizational Emergence: The University Spinout Phenomenon , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[6]  W. E. During,et al.  New Technology Based Firms in the New Millennium , 2001 .

[7]  B. Pentland.  Building Process Theory with Narrative: from Description to Explanation , 1999 .

[8]  M. Arthur,et al.  STRATEGIC NETWORKS AMONG SMALL FIRMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR STRATEGY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY* , 1995 .

[9]  C. Brush,et al.  The Corporate Venture Champion: A Resource-Based Approach to Role and Process , 1999 .

[10]  B. Clarysse,et al.  How and Why do Research-Based Start-Ups Differ at Founding? A Resource-Based Configurational Perspective , 2004 .

[11]  Giovanni Dosi,et al.  The nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities , 2001 .

[12]  Benoît Godin,et al.  The New Economy: what the concept owes to the OECD , 2004 .

[13]  Simon Mosey,et al.  Creating network bridges for university technology transfer: The medici fellowship programme , 2006, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[14]  Mike Wright,et al.  Academic and Surrogate Entrepreneurs in University Spin-out Companies , 2001 .

[15]  Marie C. Thursby,et al.  Proofs and Prototypes for Sale: The Licensing of University Inventions , 2001 .

[16]  Mike Wright,et al.  Resources, capabilities, risk capital and the creation of university spin-out companies , 2005 .

[17]  Shaker A. Zahra,et al.  Knowledge conversion capability and the performance of corporate and university spin-offs , 2007 .

[18]  S. Shane.  A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus , 2003 .

[19]  Marie C. Thursby,et al.  Incubator firm failure or graduation?: The role of university linkages , 2005 .

[20]  Scott Shane,et al.  Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spinoffs and Wealth Creation , 2004 .

[21]  Julian Birkinshaw,et al.  When Does University Research Get Commercialized? Creating Ambidexterity in Research Institutions , 2008 .

[22]  S. Zahra,et al.  Sources of capabilities, integration and technology commercialization , 2002 .

[23]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  The dynamic resource-based view: capability lifecycles , 2003 .

[24]  Dipti Pandya,et al.  How scientists commercialise new knowledge via entrepreneurship , 2008 .

[25]  Magnus Gulbrandsen,et al.  Initiatives to promote commercialization of university knowledge , 2006 .

[26]  Mike Wright,et al.  Conceptualising the heterogeneity of research-based spin-offs: A multi-dimensional taxonomy , 2006 .

[27]  James J. Chrisman,et al.  Faculty entrepreneurship and economic development: The case of the University of Calgary , 1995 .

[28]  Mike Wright,et al.  Entrepreneurial Team Development in Academic Spinouts: An Examination of Team Heterogeneity , 2006 .

[29]  Mike Wright,et al.  Critical junctures in the development of university high-tech spinout companies , 2004 .

[30]  M. Wright,et al.  Spinning Out New Ventures: A Typology of Incubation Strategies from European Research Institutions , 2005 .

[31]  T. Allen,et al.  Entrepreneurial orientation, technology transfer and spinoff performance of U.S. universities , 2005 .

[32]  Mike Wright,et al.  Entrepreneurship and University Technology Transfer , 2004 .

[33]  Marshall Scott Poole,et al.  Handbook of Organizational Change and Innovation , 2004 .

[34]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[35]  Einar Rasmussen,et al.  Government instruments to support the commercialization of university research: Lessons from Canada , 2008 .

[36]  Fabrice Pirnay,et al.  A stage model of academic spin-off creation , 2002 .

[37]  A. Nerkar,et al.  Beyond local search: boundary‐spanning, exploration, and impact in the optical disk industry , 2001 .

[38]  S. Winter.  Understanding dynamic capabilities , 2003 .

[39]  Fiona E. Murray.  The role of academic inventors in entrepreneurial firms: sharing the laboratory life , 2004 .

[40]  Marie C. Thursby,et al.  Objectives, Characteristics and Outcomes of University Licensing: A Survey of Major U.S. Universities , 2001 .

[41]  Barbara Czarniawska.  A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies , 1998 .

[42]  J. Liebeskind,et al.  Privatizing the Intellectual Commons: Universities and the Commercialization of Biotechnology , 1998 .

[43]  Thomas J. Allen,et al.  Determinants and consequences of university spinoff activity: a conceptual framework , 2008 .

[44]  K. Weick.  Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems , 1976, Gestión y Estrategia.

[45]  Mike Wright,et al.  From Human Capital to Social Capital: A Longitudinal Study of Technology–Based Academic Entrepreneurs , 2007 .

[46]  Mike Wright,et al.  University Spin-Out Companies and Venture Capital , 2006 .

[47]  T. Allen,et al.  Delineating the Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial University: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Experience , 2007 .

[48]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Special Issue on University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer: How Do University Inventions Get Into Practice? , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[49]  E. Penrose.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[50]  David V. Gibson,et al.  University spin-out companies: Technology start-ups from UT-Austin , 1990 .

[51]  Mike Wright,et al.  Academic Entrepreneurship in Europe , 2007 .

[52]  Yi Yang,et al.  Corporate venturing and value creation: A review and proposed framework , 2009 .

[53]  Rosa Grimaldi,et al.  Exploring the Networking Characteristics of New Venture Founding Teams: A Stdy of Italian Academic Spin-off , 2003 .

[54]  R. Nelson.  The market economy, and the scientific commons , 2004 .

[55]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  The myopia of learning , 1993 .

[56]  Edward B. Roberts,et al.  Policies and structures for spinning off new companies from research and development organizations , 1998 .

[57]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[58]  Martin Kenney,et al.  The role of social embeddedness in professorial entrepreneurship: a comparison of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley and Stanford , 2004 .

[59]  Stephen K. Markham,et al.  The university's role in creating radically new products , 2002 .

[60]  Scott Shane,et al.  Why do some universities generate more start-ups than others? , 2003 .

[61]  D. Polkinghorne.  Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences , 2010 .

[62]  M. M. Hart,et al.  From initial idea to unique advantage: the entrepreneurial challenge of constructing a resource base , 2001, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[63]  P. Benneworth,et al.  University spin-off policies and economic development in Less successful regions: Learning from two decades of policy practice , 2005 .

[64]  Elizabeth Garnsey,et al.  Do Academic Spin-Outs Differ and Does it Matter? , 2004 .

[65]  F. Rothaermel,et al.  University entrepreneurship: a taxonomy of the literature , 2007 .

[66]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[67]  Magnus Henrekson,et al.  Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Policies Towards the Commercialization of University Intellectual Property , 2003 .

[68]  B. Clarysse,et al.  Institutional change and resource endowments to science-based entrepreneurial firms , 2005 .

[69]  J. March.  Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning , 1991, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[70]  Melissa S. Anderson.  The Complex Relations between the Academy and Industry , 2001 .

[71]  A. van Witteloostuijn,et al.  Companion to organizations , 2002 .

[72]  Scott Shane,et al.  Special Issue on University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer: Organizational Endowments and the Performance of University Start-ups , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[73]  Edward B. Roberts,et al.  Overcoming Weak Entrepreneurial Infrastructures for Academic Spin-Off Ventures , 2004 .

[74]  Mike Wright,et al.  The Development of the Resource-based View: Reflections from Birger Wernerfelt 1 , 2008 .

[75]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[76]  David N. Allen,et al.  Faculty Entrepreneurship in Research University Environments. , 1989 .

[77]  Richard N. Cardozo,et al.  Mapping the university technology transfer process , 1997 .

[78]  S. Zahra,et al.  Entrepreneurship and Dynamic Capabilities: A Review, Model and Research Agenda , 2006 .

[79]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[80]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[81]  James R. Johnson.  Technology transfer and Universities , 1988 .

[82]  Mike Wright,et al.  Technology Transfer and Universities' Spin-Out Strategies , 2003 .

[83]  M. Wright,et al.  Research and Technology Commercialization , 2008 .