Meso e macro determinants of the entrepreneurial success in university spin-offs

The study purposes to investigate the determinants of entrepreneurial success in university spin-offs (USOs) in Italy using a two- level of analysis: the meso level and the macro level. Using the Resource-Based View theory Th and the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship, a framework to estimate the impact of the two contextual level has been explored. The results from the empirical analysis of sample of 405 Italian USOs, the results shows that USOs’ success is related with the resources of the parent university (meso level) and regional area (macro level) targeted to support the spillover process and the related technology transfer to the market. JEL classification numbers: O30, O32. Keywords: University spin-offs, Meso level, Macro level, University, Region, Italy.

Need for Autonomy and Guidelines for Autonomous Colleges by University Grant Commission

Colleges with academic and operative freedom are doing better and have more credibility. The financial support to such colleges boosts the concept of autonomy. The system has now become unwieldy and it is becoming increasingly difficult for a university to attend to the varied needs of individual colleges. One of the objectives of Autonomous Colleges is to determine and prescribe its own courses of study and syllabi, and restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs. The autonomous college is to be governed by the statutory bodies, i.e. Governing Body, Academic Council, Board of Studies and Finance Committee. The parent university will award degrees to the students evaluated and recommended by autonomous colleges.

Study of the readiness of school teachers for implementation educational programs at "parent universities"

Проблема исследования и обоснование ее актуальности. В настоящее время в нашей стране уделяется большое внимание проблемам воспитания и работе с родителями. Постановка президентом В.В. Путиным задачи создания «родительского университета» актуализировала необходимость оценки готовности учителей школ к реализации образовательных программ в такой форме организации просветительской работы с родителями. Методология (материалы и методы). На основе личностно-деятельностного подхода был составлен опросник для учителей с помощью которого предполагалось выявить знания, умения, опыта работы со взрослой аудиторией и проведения оценки эффективности такой работы. В опросе приняло участие 458 учителей из нескольких областей России – слушателей различных программ повышении квалификации. В виду случайной выборки, можно предположить, что полученные данные вполне объективны. Результаты. Готовность учителей к работе со взрослой аудиторией оказалась низкой, при этом учителя со средним и большим стажем педагогической деятельности очень высоко оценивали свои компетенции в данном вопросе, но не смогли подтвердить эту уверенность реальными фактами. Анализ образовательных программ педагогических вузов и Институтов переподготовки и повышения квалификации педагогических работников показал, что данному вопросу не уделяется специального внимания. Научная новизна состоит в изучении состояния готовности учителей школы к реализации образовательных программ в «родительских университетах». Теоретическая значимость заключается в установлении соответствия между самооценкой учителями имеющихся знаний, умений, опыта и эффективности работы с родителями и реальными фактами, подтверждающими поставленные оценки. Практическая значимость заключается в постановке образовательным организациям ориентиров совершенствования подготовки учителей к реализации Программ в «родительских университетах». Research problem and justification of its relevance. Currently, our country pays great attention to the problems of education and work with parents. Staged by President V.V. Putin, the task of creating a “parent university” made it necessary to assess the readiness of school teachers to implement educational programs in this form of organizing educational work with parents. Methodology (materials and methods). Based on the personal-activity approach, a questionnaire was compiled for teachers with the help of which it was supposed to reveal knowledge, skills, experience of working with an adult audience and assessing the effectiveness of such work. The survey involved 458 teachers from several regions of Russia - students of various advanced training programs. In view of the random sample, it can be assumed that the data obtained are quite objective. Results. The readiness of teachers to work with an adult audience turned out to be low, while teachers with medium and long experience of teaching activity highly rated their competencies in this issue, but could not confirm this confidence with real facts. The analysis of educational programs of pedagogical universities and institutes of retraining and advanced training of pedagogical workers showed that this issue is not given special attention. Scientific novelty consists in studying the state of readiness of school teachers to implement educational programs in "parent universities". The theoretical significance lies in establishing a correspondence between teachers' self-assessment of their knowledge, skills, experience and effectiveness of work with parents and real facts confirming the given assessments. The practical significance lies in the setting of guidelines for educational organizations to improve the training of teachers for the implementation of the Programs in the "parent universities".

Determinants of Building Image and Reputation of University Towards Its Stakeholders

The aim of the article is describinig the role and place of image and reputation in a university and research institution in the process of competing on the education market. The article presents current views on the scope of these concepts as well as the mutual relations between the image and reputation in business entities. The fundamental importance of university relations with internal and external stakeholders in shaping both image and reputation was pointed out. The second part presents a set of image and reputation determinants in the case of a university. In addition, the role and place of the university rector was emphasized in building the image and reputation of the parent university in the light of Act 2.0.

Imitation and entrepreneurial learning: Insights from academic spin-offs

The subject of this article is the inheritance of the parent university of academic spin-offs through imitation and entrepreneurial learning. Building on a capability perspective, the article adds to the literature on university spin-offs and presents insights into the academic spin-off phenomenon that may be useful in supporting academic entrepreneurship. The study is based on four universities, all located in the metropolitan area of Milan. The authors followed the start-up processes of 74 spin-off ventures over the period 2004–2013, obtaining economic data for 61 of the ventures. The analysis we carried out shows that parent universities influence the industry distribution of spin-offs, since most spin-offs showing a positive performance were concentrated in industries that (1) could benefit from the most advanced research of the parent university and (2) were those in which previous start-ups had also tended to concentrate. Thus, a focus on the parent (university)–progeny (spin-off) dyad as the unit of analysis reveals that the specific capabilities available and previous spin-off experience developed in the university play an important role in facilitating spin-off ventures and influencing new firms’ behaviour in their start-up and development phases.

Patenting or not? The dilemma of academic spin-off founders

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of patenting on the performance of academic spin-off firms (ASOs) in the post-creation stage. Specifically, our study analyses how the combination of knowledge transfer mechanisms by ASOs and patents can foster ASOs’ early growth performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors explored the relations between patenting processes and spin-off performance through econometric methods applied to a broad sample of Italian ASOs. The research adopts a deductive approach, and the hypotheses are tested using panel data models by considering the sales growth rate as the dependent variable regressed over measures of patenting activity and quality and assuming that firm-specific unobservable drivers of growth are captured by random effects.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows that the incorporation of knowledge transferred by the parent university and academic founders through patents affects the performance of ASOs. Specifically, the authors find that the number of patents is a positive driver of ASOs’ performance, whilst patent age does not have a significant impact on growth. Moreover, spin-offs with a larger endowment of patents obtained before foundation, surprisingly, grow less on average.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for ASO founders by suggesting that patenting processes reap benefits. However, in the trade-off of external knowledge access vs internal knowledge protection, it may be better to begin patenting after the foundation of ASOs.Originality/valueThe authors enrich the on-going debate about the connections between knowledge transfer and organizational performance. This paper combines the concepts of patents and ASOs by providing evidence on the role of patenting processes as a transfer mechanism of explicit knowledge in ASOs. Furthermore, the authors contribute to the literature on costs and benefits of patents by hinting at unexpected findings.

The effect of parent university on firm growth: an analysis of the Spanish and Italian USOs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that the university context may partially determine the growth of university spin-offs (USOs), with a cross-national analysis and using an “interactionist” approach. Design/methodology/approach Two samples of USOs, from Spain and Italy (531 and 952 firms, respectively), were examined over the 2005-2013 period. Multilevel modelling was applied to empirically test the hypotheses. Findings The results confirmed that the university context is a critical and effective element for explaining USOs’ growth. The university context affected USOs’ growth only for the Spanish firms, while for the Italian spin-offs the evidence does not report a significant determining influence of the university context. This finding may be interpreted as the localization externalities, determined by the Spanish universities, have a more effective impact at firm level compared with those generated by the Italian universities. Research limitations/implications The paper provides evidence that the university context has a significant role in supporting USOs’ growth in Spain, but not in Italy. This finding, together with the fact that the Italian USOs showed lower growth rates over the period of analysis, may suggest that greater involvement by the Italian parent universities is needed to foster USOs’ growth. The main point to be underlined to decision makers is that policies aimed at fostering USOs need the active involvement of the parent university in the whole growth process of the nascent firm, rather than just in the USO creation process. Originality/value A multilevel approach provides both methodological and theoretical contributions to the study of USOs’ growth, which was adopted as an “interactionist” approach is recommended by literature. In addition, a cross-national approach allows for exploration of the actual effect of the university on the growth of USOs, taking into account international differences.