TTOs increase academic entrepreneurship

[Alice, “Engagement of academics in university technology transfer: Opportunity and necessity academic entrepreneurship”, European Economic Review, 123, Elsevier, Accessed 7/16, GDI-IM] 

The literature on academic entrepreneurship has mainly focused on how TTOs can foster academic entrepreneurship (Clarysse et al., 2005; Wright, 2007). Although there is scarce evidence of the direct impact of TTOs on the creation of spin-offs, TTOs have increased the entrepreneurial intent of academics (Meyer, 2003). Similarly, Bercovitz and Feld- man (2008) found that academics who were familiar with TTO activities were more likely to get involved in entrepreneurial activities as they learned the business norms and skills that are needed to be successful in commercializing research due to the supportive environment that TTOs were able to create. In fact, TTOs usually organize pre-seed capital to be invested in potential spin-offs (Clarysse and Bruneel, 2007). Academics, who want to start a new business, therefore have access to capital. In addition, they offer incubation services, which make it possible for academics to set up their new business stay- ing on their campus. They also offer a variety of advice and coaching activities towards the academics and help in finding experienced managers from the industry to help support the new firm (Clarysse et al., 2011).

This is why one could expect that entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial-oriented academics are differently affected by TTOs. Individuals with the skill to spot, recognize and absorb opportunities, has been put forward in the entrepreneurship literature as opportunity entrepreneurs (Buenstorf, 2007). Entrepreneurially driven individuals identify opportunities that might lead to new venture ideas that can be commercialized and show a general interest in pursuing these opportunities and/or ideas. The ability of a potential entrepreneur to identify and pursue opportunities is intimately linked to their tech- nological knowledge and/or knowledge about markets and customer needs (Buenstorf, 2007). Clarysse et al. (2011) explored how different characteristics in the technological knowledge base at start-up predict spin-off performance. They found that corporate spin-offs grow more if they start with a specific narrow-focused technology sufficiently distinct from the technical knowledge base of the parent company. University spin-offs benefit from a broad technology, which is transferred to the spin-off. This proves that the internal availability of technology is not the only one that academic spinoffs need. Indeed, spinoffs technological performances are directly correlated with those of the parent firm (Helfat and Lieberman, 2002). Universities play a key role as explained by O’Shea et al. (2005). A high-quality rating of a university’s science and engi- neering departments positively impacts the number of spinoff companies created. According to Powers (2003), one of the necessary conditions for the generation of start-ups from universities is the availability of scientists and engineers with suit- able qualifications and know-how in R&D activities. The availability of human capital implies higher skills and knowledge within a university, which is positive for the realization of technology transfer activity. Therefore, university spinoff activity is influenced by the availability of scientists and engineers with appropriate knowledge and inclination. The level of tech- nological advancement in the local areas is important as well. There is a well-developed stream of literature devoted to the entrepreneurial ecosystems and their key role in enhancing local entrepreneurial activity (e.g. Audretsch and Belitski, 2017; Feldman, 2014). In particular, spinoff activity is more likely to occur in high technology clusters because access to critical expertise, networks, and knowledge is readily available (Saxenian, 1994). Research has shown indeed that access to persons with expert knowledge and talent is a critical human capital resource for the development of cutting-edge technologies is (Powers and McDougall, 2005).