Resources and Capabilities for Academic Spin-Offs’ Development. An Empirical Analysis of the Italian Context

The transfer of scientific knowledge from the academic context to the market can generate positive effects on the economic system. Universities have mainly carried out these activities by supporting the creation of spin-off firms. Drawing on a resource-based view theory, the aim of this study is to investigate which resources can affect more than others the creation and successful development of university spin-offs (USOs). In order to analyze the relevance of these drivers, we use a sample of 100 Italian USOs and focus our attention on the following factors: the availability of resources for the spin-off at the earlier stage such as know-how, financial assets, and managerial skills; the number of patents that have been successfully issued by the spin-off; the cultural background of the founders; the frequency of interactions with stakeholders outside the spin-off; and the propensitity and the ability to innovation. Our analysis shows that Italian spin-offs appears to be quite innovative, but they generally need time and probably more funding to protect their innovation through patents issuing. In this sense, established spin-offs suffer for the difficulties in raising funds, the high costs of developing ideas (together with the difficulties in monitoring them), and the lack of governmental support.