Technology Transfer and Universities' Spin-Out Strategies

Andy Lockett, Mike Wright and Stephen Franklin

Small Business Economics, 2003, vol. 20, issue 2, 185-200

Abstract: Universities may seek to transfer technology from the public to the private sector, and therefore capture the benefits of commercialization, through a number of different mechanisms. This paper examines the option of using technology-based spin-out companies. Based on a survey of technology transfer/business development officers at 57 U.K. universities, we examine their strategies to promote the creation of spin-out companies and how they then manage the development of these companies. Our analysis focuses on the difference between those universities that have been most active in the area and those that have been least active. The results indicate that the more successful universities have clearer strategies towards the spinning out of companies and the use of surrogate entrepreneurs in this process. In addition, the more successful universities were found to possess a greater expertise and networks that may be important in fostering spin-out companies. However, the role of the academic inventor was not found to differ between the more and less successful universities. Finally, equity ownership was found to be more widely distributed among the members of the spin-out company in the case of the more successful universities. Copyright 2003 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (93)

Downloads: (external link)
http://journals.kluweronline.com/issn/0921-898X/contents link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:20:y:2003:i:2:p:185-200

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().