Abstract
This chapter focuses on the commercialization of research results through spin-off strategies. The example study presented shows that an active venture creation strategy can be a successful way to contribute to the regional economy. However, it also involves risks that need to be managed. A number of key success factors for any new spin-out company are identified and presented. It is recommended that a holistic approach, assessing both the idea as such and the driving forces and abilities of the inventors, be taken, and that the innovation support organizations also be able to support academic engagement in technology transfer through other channels such as collaborative projects.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams, Irene, Grace Leung, and Ashley Stevens. 2009. How Are U.S. Technology Transfer Offices Tasked and Motivated - Is it All About the Money? Research Management Review 17 (1): 1–34.
Agrawal, Ajay, and Rebecca Henderson. 2002. Putting Patents in Context: Exploring Knowledge Transfer from MIT. Management Science 48 (1): 44–60.
Åstebro, Thomas. 2003. The Return to Independent Invention: Evidence of Unrealistic Optimism, Risk Seeking or Skewness Loving? The Economic Journal 113 (484): 226–239.
Balconi, Margherita, Stefano Brusoni, and Luigi Orsenigo. 2010. In Defense of the Linear Model: An Essay. Research Policy 39 (1): 1–13.
Baraldi, Enrico, Malena Ingemansson Havenvid, Åsa Linné, and Christina Öberg. 2018. Start-Ups and Networks: Interactive Perspectives and a Research Agenda. Industrial Marketing Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.02.002. Accessed 23 Aug 2019.
Bathelt, Harald, Dieter F. Kogler, and Andrew K. Munro. 2010. A Knowledge-Based Typology of University Spin-Offs in the Context of Regional Economic Development. Technovation 30 (9–10): 519–532.
Berbegal-Mirabent, Jasmina, Domingo Enrique Ribeiro-Soriano, and José Luis Sánchez Garcia. 2015. Can a Magic Recipe Foster University Spin-off Creation? Journal of Business Research 68 (11): 2272–2278.
Bercovitz, Janet, and Maryann Feldmann. 2006. Entrepreneurial Universities and Technology Transfer: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Knowledge-Based Economy Development. Journal of Technology Transfer 31: 175–188.
Blake, Megan K. 2007. Formality and Friendship: Research Ethics Review and Participatory Action Research. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 6 (3): 411–421.
Clark, Burton R. 2003. Sustaining Change in Universities: Continuities in Case Studies and Concepts. Tertiary Education and Management 9: 99–116.
Clarysse, Bart, and Nathalie Moray. 2004. A Process Study of Entrepreneurial Team Formation: The Case of a Research-Based Spin-Off. Journal of Business Venturing 19 (1): 55–79.
Clarysse, Bart, Valentina Tartari, and Ammon Salter. 2011. The Impact of Entrepreneurial Capacity, Experience and Organizational Support on Academic Entrepreneurship. Research Policy 40 (8): 1084–1093.
Clarysse, Bart, Mike Wright, Andy Lockett, Els Van de Velde, and Ajay Vohora. 2005. Spinning Out New Ventures: A Typology of Incubation Strategies from European Research Institutions. Journal of Business Venturing 20 (2): 183–216.
Cohen, Wesley M., Richard Florida, Lucien Randazzese, and John Walsh. 1998. Industry and the Academy: Uneasy Partners in the Cause of Technology Advance. In Challenges to Research Universities, ed. Roger G. Noll, 171–199. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Colombo, Massimo G., and Evila Piva. 2012. Firms’ Genetic Characteristics and Competence-Enlarging Strategies: A Comparison between Academic and Non-Academic High-Tech Start-Ups. Research Policy 41 (1): 79–92.
Datta, Surja, and Samha Souleh. 2018. Conceptualizing University-Industry Linkages in Resource Constrained Environments. International Journal of Technology Managing and Sustainable Development 17 (3): 295–307.
Erikson, Truls. 2002. Entrepreneurial Capital: The Emerging Venture’s Most Important Asset and Competitive Advantage. Journal of Business Venturing 17 (3): 275–290.
Etzkowitz, Henry, and Loet Leydesdorff. 2000. The Dynamics of Innovation: From National Systems and “Mode 2” to a Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations. Research Policy 29 (2): 109–123.
Fini, Riccardo, Rosa Grimaldi, Simone Santoni, and Maurizio Sobero. 2011. Complements or Substitutes? The Role of Universities and Local Context in Supporting the Creation of Academic Spin-Offs. Research Policy 40 (8): 1113–1127.
Franklin, Stephen J., Mike Wright, and Andy Lockett. 2001. Academic and Surrogate Entrepreneurs in University Spin-out Companies. Journal of Technology Transfer 26 (1–2): 127–141.
Gilsing, Victor A., Elco van Burg, A. Georges, and L. Romme. 2010. Policy Principles for the Creation and Success of Corporate and Academic Spin-Offs. Technovation 30 (1): 12–23.
Jain, Sanjay, Gerard George, and Mark Maltarich. 2009. Academics or Entrepreneurs? Investigating Role Identity Modification of University Scientists Involved in Commercialization Activity. Research Policy 38 (6): 922–935.
Jonsson, Lars, Enrico Baraldi, and Lars-Eric Larsson. 2015a. A Broadened Innovation Support for Mutual Benefits: Academic Engagement by Universities as Part of Technology Transfer. International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development 14 (2): 71–91.
Jonsson, Lars, Enrico Baraldi, Lars-Eric Larsson, Petter Forsberg, and Kristofer Severinsson. 2015b. Targeting Academic Engagement in Open Innovation: Tools, Effects and Challenges for University Management. Journal of Knowledge Economy 6 (3): 522–550.
Jonsson, Lars, Mateo Santurio, and Patrick Micucci. 2018. Are There Specific Factors Increasing the Possibility of Success for University Spin-Off Companies? A Longitudinal Study of 50 Companies over Nineteen Years. International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development 17 (3): 253–274.
Kelli, Aleksei, Tõnis Mets, Lars Jonsson, Heiki Pisuke, Reet Adamsoo, and Urmas Varblane. 2013. The Change of Approach in Industry-Academia Collaboration: From Profit Orientation to Innovation Support. Trames 17 (67/62) (3): 215–241.
Levin, Morten, and Davydd Greenwood. 2001. Pragmatic Action Research and the Struggle to Transform Universities into Learning Communities. In Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice, ed. Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury, 103–113. London: Sage.
Litan, Robert E., Lesa Mitchell, and E.J. Reedy. 2007. The University as Innovator: Bumps in the Road. Issues in Science and Technology 23 (4): 57–66.
Lockett, Andy, Mike Wright, and Stephen Franklin. 2003. Technology Transfer and Universities’ Spin-out Strategies. Small Business Economics 20 (2): 185–200.
Lundqvist, Mats A. 2014. The Importance of Surrogate Entrepreneurship for Incubated Swedish Technology Ventures. Technovation 34 (2): 93–100.
Markman, Gidean D., Peter T. Gianidos, Philip H. Phan, and David B. Balkin. 2005a. Innovation Speed: Transferring University Technology to Market. Research Policy 34 (7): 1058–1075.
Markman, Gideon D., Philip H. Phan, David B. Balkin, and Peter T. Gianiodis. 2005b. Entrepreneurship and University-Based Technology Transfer. Journal of Business Venturing 20: 241–263.
McDevitt, Valerie Landrio, Joelle Mendez-Hinds, David Winwood, Vinit Nijhawan, Todd Sharan, John F. Ritter, and Paul R. Sandberg. 2014. More than Money: The Exponential Impact of Academic Technology Transfer. Technology and Innovation 16 (1): 75–84.
Meissner, Dirk, and Natalia Shmatko. 2017. “Keep Open”: The Potential of Gatekeepers for the Aligning Universities to the New Knowledge Triangle. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 123 (October): 191–198.
Mosey, Simon, and Mike Wright. 2007. From Human Capital to Social Capital: A Longitudinal Study of Technology-Based Academic Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 31 (6): 909–935.
Mowery, David C., and Bhaven N. Sampat. 2005. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and University-Industry Technology Transfer: A Model for Other OECD Governments? Journal of Technology Transfer 30 (1/2): 115–127.
Murray, Fiona. 2004. The Role of Academic Inventors in Entrepreneurial Firms: Sharing the Laboratory Life. Research Policy 33: 643–659.
Nicolaou, Nicos, and Sue Birley. 2003. Academic Networks in a Trichotomous Categorisation of University Spinouts. Journal of Business Venturing 18 (3): 333–359.
O’Gorman, Colm, Orla Byrne, and Dipti Pandya. 2008. How Scientists Commercialize New Knowledge Via Entrepreneurship. Journal of Technology Transfer 33 (1): 23–43.
Olofsson, Christer, Börje Svensson, and Richard Ferguson. 2008. Academic Entrepreneurship - Roles and Relations in the Venture Creation Process. In Innovation Networks and Knowledge Clusters - Findings and Insights from the US, EU and Japan, ed. C.E. Carayannis, D. Assimakopoulos, and M. Kondo, 54–76. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Perkmann, Markus, Valentina Tartari, Maureen McKelvey, Erkko Autio, Anders Broström, Pablo D’Este, Riccardo FinoAldo Geuna, Rosa Grimaldi, Alan Hughes, Stefan Krabel, Michael Kitson, Patrick Llerena, Franceso Lissoni, Ammon Salter, and Maurizio Sobrero. 2013. Academic Engagement and Commercialisation: A Review of the Literature on University-Industry Relations. Research Policy 42: 423–442.
Powell, Walter W., Jason Owen-Smith, and Jeanette A. Colyvas. 2007. Innovation and Emulation: Lessons from American Universities in Selling Private Rights to Public Knowledge. Minerva 45 (2): 121–142.
Prokop, Daniel, Robert Huggins, and Gillian Bristow. 2019. The Survival of Academic Spinoff Companies: An Empirical Study of Key Determinants. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 37 (5): 502–535.
Radosevich, Raymond. 1995. A Test of the Surrogate-Entrepreneurship Model of Public-Technology Commercialization. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 28th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 3–6.
Rasmussen, Einar, and Odd Jarl Borch. 2010. University Capabilities in Facilitating Entrepreneurship: A Longitudinal Study of Spin-Off Ventures at Mid-Range Universities. Research Policy 39 (5): 602–610.
Soetanto, Danny, and Sarah Jack. 2016. The Impact of University-Based Incubation Support on the Innovation Strategy of Academic Spin-Offs. Technovation 50–51 (April–May): 25–40.
Sternberg, Rolf. 2014. Success Factors of University-Spin-Offs: Regional Government Support Programs Versus Regional Environment. Technovation 34 (3): 137–148.
Sugimoto, Cassidy R., Chaoqun Ni, Jevin West, and Vincent Lariviére. 2015. The Academic Advantage: Gender Disparities in Patenting. PLoS One 10 (5): 1–10.
UU Holding. 2018. Årsredovisning för Uppsala universitet Holding AB räkenskapsåret 2017. Downloaded from www.Bolagsverket.se. 7th January 2019.
van Geenhuizen, Marina, and Danny P. Soetanto. 2009. Academic Spin-Offs at Different Ages: A Case Study in Search of Key Obstacles to Growth. Technovation 29 (10): 671–681.
Vohora, Ajay, Mike Wright, and Andy Lockett. 2004. Critical Junctures in the Development of University High-Tech Spinout Companies. Research Policy 33: 147–175.
Walter, Achim, Michael Auer, and Thomas Ritter. 2006. The Impact of Network Capabilities and Entrepreneurial Orientation on University Spin-Off Performance. Journal of Business Venturing 21 (4): 541–567.
Yin, Robert K., ed. 2003. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. 3rd ed. Applied Social Research Series. London: Sage.
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to investment manager Mateo Santurio and CFO Patrick Micucci at UUH for their co-authorship of the example study as well as to Dr. Niklas Bomark, research fellow at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, and Dr. Andrew Browning at UU Innovation at Uppsala University for constructive discussions, analytic support and linguistic review.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jonsson, L.O. (2020). Spin-Off Strategy and Technology Transfer Office: Cases in Sweden. In: Adesola, S., Datta, S. (eds) Entrepreneurial Universities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48013-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48013-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48012-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48013-4
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)