Academic entrepreneurship in knowledge and technology-based industries: the fundamental determinants at German research universities and universities of applied sciences

Stefan Heumann, Jurgen Schmude and Frank Lasch

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2010, vol. 10, issue 1, 5-29

Abstract: Research on the institutional-level determinants of academic start-up activity is mostly focused on research universities. Examining German Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs), this article illustrates that there are also other types of institutions of higher education that not only comprise a valuable potential for academic entrepreneurship, but are also externally expected and internally committed to breeding innovative start-up companies. Based on a number of secondary data sources, the authors argue that research universities and UASs are characterised by a number of idiosyncratic features that shape both the quantity and quality of Knowledge and Technology-Based (KTB) start-up activity in specific ways. Separate analyses of the determinants of academic entrepreneurship at 86 research universities and 99 UASs suggest that research universities and UASs bear complementary functions for innovative start-up activity in the German innovation system. The article concludes with implications for future research on the processes underlying academic start-up generation.

Keywords: academic entrepreneurship; academic start-ups; spinoffs; entrepreneurship support policy; institutional variety; research universities; universities of applied sciences; Germany; higher education; innovation systems. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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