What drives the growth of academic spin-offs? Matching academics, universities, and non-research organizations

This paper aims to contribute to the on-going debate on the factors that affectvthe growth of academic spin-off firms (ASOs) in the post-creation stage. Specifically,vour study analyses whether the combination of academic and non-academic individualsvand organizations on the board and in the shareholder base can foster ASOs’ early growth performance. We perform panel data estimates for a sample of 138 Italian ASOs observed between 1999 and 2009, which allows us to observe the non-linear effects of ownership and board composition on sales growth. Our findings suggest that, all else equal, the fastest growing academic spin-offs in our sample are characterized by the joint efforts of academic individuals and representatives of non-academic organizations on the board and in the shareholder base. Specifically, the estimates suggest that academic individuals’ engagement on the board of directors positively affects the early growth performance of ASOs’ early growth, but this effect is limited to a given share of board seats. However, academic individuals’ ownership shares do not exercise any significant impact on sales growth, and the effect of the parent university is negative, whereas non-academic organizations foster ASO sales growth in an inverse U-shaped fashion.