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Why do university spin-offs attract more venture capitalists?
Ortín Ángel, Pedro 1968 (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Empresa)
Vendrell Herrero, Ferran (Instituto Vasco de Competitividad. Orkestra)

Date: 2014
Abstract: This paper provides empirical evidence that young university spin-offs are more likely to receive venture capital than other technological start-ups. In addition, this fact is explained mainly by the lack of managerial skills among the founders of certain university spin-offs. The data used has been obtained from a questionnaire answered by 64 Spanish technological firms founded between the years 1993 and 2005. Forty of the firms are university spin-offs; the remainder are independent technology-based start-ups. The results support the complementary-assets view that academic entrepreneurs use venture capitalists as a means of gaining access to managerial skills. These results are maintained even when we control for financial constraints, levels of debt and intellectual-property protection. Although these latter variables explain why certain high-tech firms are more likely to receive venture capital, we do not find statistical evidence that they explain the differences between university spin-offs and technological start-ups in terms of being backed by venture capitalists. The results therefore suggest that universities and policy makers can stimulate the creation and growth of university spin-offs by facilitating contact and trust between venture capitalists and academic entrepreneurs, mostly with respect to those cases in which there is a severe lack of managerial skills.
Grants: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia SEJ2007-67895-C04-02
Rights: Tots els drets reservats.
Language: Anglès
Document: Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject: Empreses ; Creació ; Innovacions tecnològiques ; Venture capital ; University spin-offs ; Technological firms ; Managerial skills
Published in: Venture capital : an international journal of entrepreneurial finance, Vol. 12 Núm. 4 (2014) , ISSN 1369-1066

DOI: 10.1080/13691066.2010.486166


Postprint
30 p, 394.1 KB

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Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles

 Record created 2016-02-04, last modified 2022-11-29



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