Purpose

This article investigates the distinctive characteristics and the performance of academic spin-offs within young innovative companies (YICs) supported by public regional agencies. Considering that academic spin-offs are characterized by high intensity in innovation and technology transfer, we raise the issue of their performance relative to other YICs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors focus on YICs which receive support from public or semi-public institutions at the early stage of their development as a reward for their innovative business ideas. The study is performed in two steps. First, the authors estimate the growth of the academic spin-offs within a set of YICs supported for fewer than 5 years. This estimation is based on data gathered in 2014. Second, the authors investigate the survival of these supported YICs with the Cox proportional hazards model, 5 years later, at the end of 2019.

Findings

Results reveal that academic spin-offs are more able to capture resources in the early stages: These firms have more patents, more external funding and higher increases in the number of employees. The authors also demonstrate that academic spin-offs have the highest survival rates.

Research limitations/implications

The drawback of the studies on ASOs is the limited sample. The main issue is related to survival analysis. Limitation of the sample sizes precludes from in-depth survival analyses, which may highlight fundamental differences in the development patterns of the firm.

Practical implications

The study’s results provide evidence on how the identity of academic spin-offs based on technology transfer act as a positive signal to obtain legitimacy. It is of particular interest for entrepreneurs who can rely on trust provided by their parent institution to engage in negotiations with different stakeholders. Moreover, results give insights to policymakers on the usefulness to invest on academic spin-offs because of its outperforming results.

Originality/value

The results provide important insights for designing, conducting and monitoring policies that favor innovation. Moreover, it demonstrates to universities, research institutions and entrepreneurs engaged in technology transfer the economic and social usefulness of their approach.

中文翻译：

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学术衍生公司的表现是否优于年轻的创新公司？存活率和生长的比较

目的

本文调查了由公共区域机构支持的年轻创新公司 (YIC) 的学术衍生产品的独特特征和表现。考虑到学术衍生产品的特点是创新和技术转让的强度很高，我们提出了它们相对于其他 YIC 的表现问题。

设计/方法/方法

作者专注于在发展初期获得公共或半公共机构支持的 YIC，作为对创新商业理念的奖励。该研究分两个步骤进行。首先，作者估计了一组支持不到 5 年的 YIC 中学术衍生产品的增长。该估计基于 2014 年收集的数据。其次，作者在 5 年后，即 2019 年底，使用 Cox 比例风险模型调查了这些受支持的 YIC 的生存情况。

发现

结果表明，学术衍生公司更能在早期阶段获取资源：这些公司拥有更多的专利、更多的外部资金和更高的员工数量增长。作者还证明，学术衍生产品的存活率最高。

研究限制/影响

ASO 研究的缺点是样本有限。主要问题与生存分析有关。样本量的限制妨碍了深入的生存分析，这可能会突出公司发展模式的根本差异。

实际影响

该研究的结果为基于技术转让的学术衍生产品的身份如何作为获得合法性的积极信号提供了证据。对于可以依靠其母机构提供的信任与不同利益相关者进行谈判的企业家来说，这是特别感兴趣的。此外，由于其出色的结果，结果为决策者提供了对学术衍生产品投资有用性的见解。

原创性/价值

结果为设计、执行和监控有利于创新的政策提供了重要的见解。此外，它向从事技术转让的大学、研究机构和企业家展示了其方法的经济和社会实用性。