Market orientation and academic spin-off firms

Tindara Abbate and Fabrizio Cesaroni

IC3JM - Estudios = Working Papers from Instituto Mixto Carlos III - Juan March de Ciencias Sociales (IC3JM)

Abstract: Purpose: Academic spin-off firms are considered an important mechanism to transfer technological knowledge from university to industry, although they often show a low growth rate. One possible cause is the lack of proper marketing capabilities, since spin-off managers tend to reduce the role of marketing to the implementation of mere tactical activities. This study analyses whether spin-off firms adopt a market orientation and the effect it produces on firms' economic and innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis is based on both quantitative survey data and in-depth interviews, referring to a unique sample including Italian and Spanish spin-off companies. Findings: Results highlight that MKTOR and MARKOR measurement scales show different abilities to capture the implementation of market orientation by sampled firms. We find that the generation and dissemination of information on customers and competitors directly affect firms' ability to develop technological innovations and gain profits. Nevertheless, market orientation also constitutes a challenge to spin-offs, and may eventually generate inefficiencies when external technological conditions require firms to respond quickly to environmental stimuli. Practical implications: The findings of this study are relevant to academic spin-off managers who are responsible for adopting, implementing and maintaining market orientation strategies under different environmental conditions. Limitations: The characteristics of sample used for the quantitative analysis may limit the generalization of results. Originality/value: Even though the market orientation concept has been largely analyzed, no previous study has examined its application by academic spin-offs. By employing qualitative and quantitative analyses we provide novel insights in this respect.

Keywords: Academic spin-off firms; market orientation; company performance; Market; orientation; Company; performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://e-archivo.uc3m.es/rest/api/core/bitstreams ... 43b3c75be486/content (application/pdf)

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:cte:imrepe:id-14-01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IC3JM - Estudios = Working Papers from Instituto Mixto Carlos III - Juan March de Ciencias Sociales (IC3JM)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ana Poveda ().