Exploring the Characteristics of Public Research Spinoff Founders: Evidence from the Bologna Area

3 Chapter 1 The importance of public research spinoffs 1.1 Introduction and definition of public research spinoff The importance of academic spinoffs in fostering economic growth and technological development for our society has already been much studied and widely acknowledged by scholars all over the world. Nevertheless, it has to be remarked that this subject has not been tackled at all until recent years when it has started to attract ever increasing numbers of researchers who have been focusing on it and studying its dimensions. First of all is important to define what an academic spin-off is. Here the first complications in our subject are encountered, because, as has been highlighted by the European Commission, “there is no commonly accepted definition of what an academic spinoff is.” 1 . Shane defines an academic spinoff as “a new company founded to exploit a piece of intellectual property created in an academic institution”. He does not include in his definition those companies established by current or former members of universities, which do not commercialize intellectual property created in academic institutions. Thus, his idea of academic spinoff is a subset of all start-up companies created by students and employees of academic institutions (Shane, 2004). Pirnay (2003) has a similar interpretation, proposing that an academic spin-off is to be defined as a “new firm created to exploit commercially some knowledge, technology or research results developed within a university”. On the contrary Roberts (1991), one of the first scholars to approach this field of research, gave a broader sense to this definition, stating that “university spin- offs are companies founded by anyone who has studied or worked at a university”. This change shows how much the definition of this concept has been refined in the last ten years. In Italy the network of Italian University Technology Transfer Offices has reached consesus on a more narrow sense/definition: a university spin-off is a business founded by a researcher to valorize the results of his/her own research activity and his/her scientific knowledge. This paper will not limit its invesigations to academic spin-offs, but will also analyze public research center spinoffs. These two categories will constitute a broader set labeled “public research spin-offs”. Figure 1 will help the reader to better understand the different categories. 1 European Commission: ‘The changing role of public support to academic spin-offs’- Trendchart Workshop summary paper - 17/05/2002 - http://trendchart.cordis.lu/tc_newsitem.cfm?ID=126