Assessing the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices: parametric and non-parametric evidence

We present evidence on the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices (TTOs) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier estimation (SFE). U.K. TTOs are found to exhibit low-levels of absolute efficiency. There also appear to be decreasing returns to scale, implying that TTOs may need to be reconfigured into smaller units. The development of regionally-based sector focused TTOs is also advised. Consistent with qualitative evidence from U.S. TTOs, we find that there is a need to upgrade the business skills and capabilities of U.K. TTO managers and licensing officers.     

Resources, capabilities, risk capital and the creation of university spin-out companies

The commercialization of university research has become an increasingly important issue, given concerns regarding licensing and the university's desire to maximize the returns to intellectual property (IP). In this paper, we assess the impact of university resources and routines/capabilities on the creation of spin-out companies. We find that both the number of spin-out companies created and the number of spin-out companies created with equity investment are significantly positively associated with expenditure on intellectual property protection, the business development capabilities of technology transfer offices and the royalty regime of the university. These results highlight the importance not just of resource stocks, but also of developing appropriate capabilities of technology transfer officers in spinning-out companies. The results suggest that universities and policy-makers need to devote attention to the training and recruitment of technology officers with the broad base of commercial skills.     

Performance of Spanish universities in technology transfer: An empirical analysis

This paper investigates the performance of universities in the transfer of technology using a unique university-level dataset for Spain. The results suggest that universities with established policies and procedures for the management of technology transfer perform better. Universities with large and experienced technology transfer offices (TTOs) generate higher volumes of contract research, but the TTO characteristics appear to matter less for university performance in terms of licensing and creation of spin-offs. Furthermore, universities with a science park perform better than those without, which suggests that the agglomeration of knowledge close to universities has a positive effect on universities’ technology transfer performance.     

A comparative study of new venture top management team composition, dynamics and performance between university-based and independent start-ups

The current study tests for differences in top management team (TMT) composition (education, functional expertise, industry experience, and skill), dynamics (shared strategic cognition, potency, cohesion, and conflict) and performance (net cash flow and revenue growth) between a sample of 102 high-technology university-based start-ups and an otherwise equivalently matched sample of 154 independent high-technology new ventures. The results find university-based start-ups to be comprised of more homogenous TMTs with less developed dynamics than their independent counterparts. Further, university-based start-ups are found to be significantly lower performing in terms of net cash flow and revenue growth than independent new ventures.     

The creation of spin-off firms at public research institutions: Managerial and policy implications

We consider the managerial and policy implications of the rise of spin-offs at public research institutions (PRIs), based on a knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm. This framework highlights the importance of knowledge in the creation and development of spin-offs. We argue that in order to understand the development of spin-offs, researchers should focus on “knowledge gaps” these new ventures encounter. Knowledge gaps can occur at different levels of aggregation, including the PRI, spin-off, team, individual, incubator, and at different stages of spin-off development. Based on this framework, we synthesize findings from previous studies and papers in the special issue and offer some suggestions for additional research on spin-offs from PRIs.     

R&D strategies and entrepreneurial spawning

This paper analyzes how different R&D strategies of incumbent firms affect the quantity and quality of their entrepreneurial spawning. When examining entrepreneurial ventures of ex-employees of firms with different R&D strategies, three things emerge: First, firms with persistent R&D investments and a general superiority in sales, exports, productivity, profitability and wages are less likely to generate entrepreneurs than firms with temporary or no R&D investments. Second, start-ups from knowledge intensive business service (KIBS) firms with persistent R&D investments have a significantly increased probability of survival. No corresponding association between the R&D strategies of incumbents and survival of entrepreneurial spawns is found for incumbents in manufacturing sectors. Third, spin-outs from KIBS-firms are more likely to survive if they start in the same sector, indicating the importance of inherited knowledge. These findings suggest that R&D intensive firms are less likely to generate employee start-ups, but their entrepreneurial spawns tend to be of higher quality.     

Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices: an exploratory study

We present quantitative and qualitative evidence on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices (TTOs). Our empirical results suggest that TTO activity is characterized by constant returns to scale and that environmental and institutional factors explain some of the variation in performance. Productivity may also depend on organizational practices. Unfortunately, there are no quantitative measures available on such practices, so we rely on inductive, qualitative methods to identify them. Based on 55 interviews of 98 entrepreneurs, scientists, and administrators at five research universities, we conclude that the most critical organizational factors are faculty reward systems, TTO staffing/compensation practices, and cultural barriers between universities and firms.     

Public science and public innovation: Assessing the relationship between patenting at U.S. National Laboratories and the Bayh-Dole Act

Most studies of the effects of the Bayh-Dole Act have focused on universities. In contrast, we analyze patenting activity at two prominent national laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories and the National Institute of Standards and Technology before and after the enactment of this legislation and the Stevenson-Wydler Act. It appears as though the enactment of Bayh-Dole and the Stevenson-Wydler Act were not sufficient to induce an increase in patenting at these labs. However, the establishment of financial incentive systems, embodied in passage of the Federal Technology Transfer Act, as well as the allocation of internal resources to support technology transfer, stimulated an increase in such activity.     

Turning scientific and technological human capital into economic capital: the experience of biotech start-ups in France

This paper examines how scientific and technological (S&T) human capital is transformed into financial capital through the creation of firms by scientists. The analysis is based on a database describing the positions held by 132 founders from 62 French biotech SMEs. It shows that star scientists engage in highly risky but also valuable firms. Less famous scientists must develop their human capital rather than valorising a stock. The paper concludes by pointing to three paradoxes concerning the commitment and compensation scheme of star scientists and the managerial position of less known scientists.     

Incubator firm failure or graduation?: The role of university linkages

One of the theoretically important factors for incubator firm performance is the strength of their linkages to the research university sponsoring the technology incubator. Herein, we focus on two types of university linkages to the sponsoring institution: a license obtained from the university and a link to university faculty, while controlling for incubator firm linkages to non-sponsoring research universities, among other factors. We propose that a university link to the sponsoring institution reduces the probability of new venture failure and, at the same time, retards timely graduation. Further, we suggest that these effects are more pronounced the stronger the university link. Due to the difficulty of obtaining fine-grained longitudinal data, the incubation literature is characterized by a dearth of studies focusing on incubator firm differential performance. We attempt to take a first step towards closing this gap by testing these hypotheses through following 79 start-up firms incubated in the Advanced Technology Development Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology over the 6-year period between 1998 and 2003. We find broad support for the hypotheses advanced.     

The birth of a new industry: entry by start-ups and the drivers of firm growth: The case of encryption software

The paper analyses the birth of the encryption software industry (ESI), a new niche in the software industry. Using a Chandlerian perspective, this work reports the main facts about firm entry and growth, with a particular focus on start-up strategies and actions.Since scale economies do not play a major role in ESI, the paper investigates the different sources of firm competitive advantages.This work shows that innovation and product differentiation, along with investments in co-specialised assets, are variables strongly correlated to young firm probability to survive and grow. In doing so, we have collected highly detailed information on product introduction, US patents granted, worldwide alliances and biographical data of firm founders.     

Scientific teams and institutional collaborations: Evidence from U.S. universities, 1981-1999

This paper explores recent trends in the size of scientific teams and in institutional collaborations. The data derive from 2.4 million scientific papers written in 110 top U.S. research universities over the period 1981-1999. The top 110 account for a large share of published basic research conducted in the U.S. during this time.We measure team size by the number of authors on a scientific paper. Using this measure we find that team size increases by 50% over the 19-year period. We supplement team size with measures of domestic and foreign institutional collaborations, which capture the geographic dispersion of team workers. The time series evidence suggests that the trend towards more geographically dispersed scientific teams accelerates beginning with papers published at the start of the 1990s. This acceleration suggests a sharp decline in the cost of collaboration. Our hypothesis is that the decline is due to the deployment of the National Science Foundation's NSFNET and its connection to networks in Europe and Japan after 1987.Using a panel of top university departments we also find that private universities and departments whose scientists have earned prestigious awards participate in larger teams, as do departments that have larger amounts of federal funding. Placement of former graduate students is a key determinant of institutional collaborations, especially collaborations with firms and with foreign scientific institutions. Finally, the evidence suggests that scientific output and influence increase with team size and that influence rises along with institutional collaborations. Since increasing team size implies an increase in the division of labor, these results suggest that scientific productivity increases with the scientific division of labor.     

R&D cooperation and failures in innovation projects: Empirical evidence from French CIS data

The second French Community Innovation Survey (CIS) indicates that 14% of R&D collaborating firms had to abandon or delay their innovation projects due to difficulties in their partnerships, an outcome which we term “cooperation failures”. Controlling for sample selection on the cooperation decision, our estimates show that firms collaborating with competitors and public research organizations (PROs), especially when they are foreign, are more likely to delay or stop an innovation project because of difficulties encountered in their R&D partnerships. More surprisingly, firms collaborating with their suppliers also face a higher risk of “cooperation failures”. At least for PROs, firms can reduce the risk of “cooperation failures” through previous experiences in partnerships. Larger firms and group subsidiaries are less likely to face “cooperation failures”, and so do firms in industries with a strong appropriability regime.     

The maturation of global corporate R&D: Evidence from the activity of U.S. foreign subsidiaries

This study empirically investigates the impact of foreign country factors like market size, technological strength of industries, and science and engineering (S&E) capability on the conduct of U.S. overseas R&D during the 1991-2002 period. We find that overseas markets primarily predict the entry of U.S. R&D, while the S&E capability of nations is strongly correlated with the post-entry intensity of U.S. foreign subsidiaries’ innovative activity. We also find important inter-industry differences: U.S. electrical, electronics, computer, and telecommunication industries are strongly drawn towards overseas S&E capacity; industries including Machinery, Automobiles, and Transport equipment are primarily attracted by the technological strength of foreign industry; U.S. R&D in Chemicals mostly follows overseas markets. We discuss the implications of our results to the global organization of innovative activity and innovation policy.     

Sources of spillovers for imitation and innovation

We estimate the effect of R&D spillovers on sales realized by products new to the firm (imitation) and new to the market (innovation). It turns out that spillovers from rivals lead to more imitation, while input from customers and research institutions enhance original innovation.     

Absorptive capacity and the search for innovation

This paper examines the link between a firm's absorptive capacity-building activities and the search process for innovation. We propose that the enhanced access to university research enjoyed by firms that engage in basic research and collaborate with university scientists leads to superior search for new inventions and provides advantage in terms of both the timing and quality of search outcomes. Results based on a panel data of pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms support these contentions and suggest that the two research activities are mutually beneficial, but also uncover intriguing differences that suggest differing roles of internally and externally developed knowledge.     

Innovation and firm performance in developing countries: The case of Pakistani textile and apparel manufacturers

Using unique innovation survey data collected from a homogenous sample of firms in Pakistan, this paper presents an analysis of the firm level determinants of product innovation and its impact on firm performance. We employ a multi-stage structural model linking the decision of a firm to innovate, its innovation investment, product innovation, and firm performance using primary data from the textile and wearing apparel sector, which is the largest export sector of Pakistan. We find that product innovation leads to increased labor productivity as well as higher labor productivity growth. A 10 percent increase in innovative sales per worker is associated with a greater than 10 percent increase in labor productivity and labor productivity growth. On the determinants of innovation, we find that vertical knowledge flows from foreign clients and suppliers are important determinants of a firm's decision to innovate. Larger firms are more likely to engage in innovation, however, there is no significant evidence that they invest more in innovation. Exporting is positively associated with innovation performance and firms exporting to Europe and America are more likely to engage in innovation. There is mixed evidence on the impact of competition: foreign competition adversely affects a firm’s decision to innovate, whereas, local competition increases investment in innovation. Subsidies seem to have a crowding out effect since firms receiving national subsides invest less in innovation. Furthermore, firms that have higher investment in innovation, that are more productive, and that introduce organizational innovations have higher innovative sales per worker.     

Going, going, gone. Exit forms and the innovative capabilities of firms

Although innovation is essential to build a competitive advantage and survive in the long run, some firms choose to exit, through mergers and acquisitions (M&As), or radically change their business portfolio and identity. This paper examines how innovative capabilities influence the decision of a firm to exit, among business closure, M&A, and radical restructuring. Using an analysis of a large and rich panel of Dutch manufacturing firms, we find that product and process innovation are equally important to lower the probability to close down activities, and this effect is stronger when product and process innovations are pursed in combination. We also find that process innovation reduces the probability of exit by radical restructuring, while product innovation, when not supported by process innovation, especially increases the probability of exit by M&As. Our findings suggest that exit strategies are intimately bound to the nature and synergies of innovative efforts.     

Selective search, sectoral patterns, and the impact on product innovation performance

The shift toward more open and interconnected innovation activities has been a major topic in recent academic and practitioner discussions. Firms must connect their in-house R&D activities with external partners, such as leading customers or universities, to increase the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Hence, management needs to define where to search for valuable knowledge in its environment. In this paper we argue that knowledge search has to reflect the heterogeneity of various knowledge sources with regard to the knowledge they can provide and how these sources can be activated. We hypothesize that search strategies driven by science, suppliers and the product market will contribute differently to innovation success with new-to-market versus imitated products. Moreover, we explore the effect of these types of knowledge search within different sectoral patterns of innovation. Our empirical analysis rests on a sample of almost 5000 firms from five Western European countries. The results support our hypotheses and highlight the potentials and shortcomings of different types of knowledge search.     

Innovation and productivity in developing countries: A study of Argentine manufacturing firms’ behavior (1992-2001)

Following the methodology employed in studies for industrialized countries and using panel data from innovation surveys in Argentina with information for 1992-2001, this paper contributes to the nascent literature that analyzes the determinants of innovative inputs and outputs and their impacts on manufacturing firms’ productivity in developing countries. The econometric results show that in house R&D and technology acquisition expenditures have positive payoffs in terms of enhanced probability of introducing new products and/or processes to the market. In turn, innovators attain higher productivity levels than non-innovators. The results also show that large firms have a higher probability of engaging in innovation activities and of becoming innovators.