Ambidextrous intellectual capital in the scientific research. An empirical analysis on university spin-offs

This work aims at analyzing the level of awareness on the topic of planning and control by people with an apical role in research spin-offs, suggesting a framework to increase the survivability of spin-offs. The universities take a strategic role as “knowledge incubators” to ensure competitive advantage through the use of their knowledge stock. In this scenario, research spin-offs contribute to the valorisation of intellectual capital in universities. However, Consorzio Netval’s data highlighted that the percentage of spin-offs liquidated from 2000 to 2019 is approximately 72%. The analysis of the literature shows many issues that spin-offs face; however, there is little research on another possible critical issue that this study aims to fill: the difficulties during the phases of research spin-offs’ planning and control, especially in adequately balancing their short and long-term goals. Thus, we submitted a questionnaire to a panel of experts to investigate their view of the management, planning and control systems. Results show a lack of attention to the application of these systems in spin-offs, while acknowledging awareness of their importance. On the basis of these findings, we propose a framework to increase the survivability of research spin-offs, overcoming their main issues. Our framework relies on the application of ambidextrous intellectual capital to spin-offs, considered a valuable solution, given that it combines the attention to the future, typical of spin-offs and start-ups, with the attention to the present, necessary to go beyond the pre-seed phase.