Sustainability orientation of academic spinoffs: does it pay?

Alice Civera () and Michele Meoli
Additional contact information
Alice Civera: University of Bergamo
Michele Meoli: University of Bergamo

Small Business Economics, 2025, vol. 65, issue 3, No 22, 1727-1753

Abstract: Abstract The sustainability orientation of entrepreneurial companies is crucial for addressing the sustainability challenges of our time. However, research on the role of sustainability in enhancing performance, as well as the factors enabling sustainability, has been inconclusive thus far. Our study, by relying on 639 Italian academic spinoffs from 59 public universities over the period 2006–2019, demonstrates the relevance of disentangling the role of environmental, social, and economic sustainability, as they contribute differently to economic performance. Economic sustainability enhances performance, environmental sustainability hinders it, and social sustainability does not play any role. However, the sustainability orientation of entrepreneurial ecosystems does play a role. University research and local awareness and support in terms of environmental sustainability can contribute to overcoming the negative effects of environmental sustainability on performance. Similarly, university research and local awareness and support in terms of economic sustainability reinforce the positive effects of economic sustainability on performance.

Keywords: Academic spinoffs; Performance; Sustainability; I23; L25; L256; M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-025-01070-x Abstract (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:65:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-025-01070-x

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

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01070-x

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 ().