Title: Is university-based entrepreneurship successful? The Spanish case

Authors: María Jesús Rodríguez-Gulías; David Rodeiro-Pazos; Sara Fernández-López

Addresses: Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Coruña, Campus Elviña, 15701 A Coruña, Spain ' Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Santiago de Compostela, Avda. do Burgo, s/n., 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain ' Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Santiago de Compostela, Avda. do Burgo, s/n., 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Abstract: This paper investigates the factors determining the survival of university spin-offs (USOs). In the past few decades, public administrations and universities have supported this university-based entrepreneurship as a way to transfer technology. For this reason, it is necessary to know whether these firms contribute to value and job creation. In the empirical section, we compare a sample of 469 USOs with 469 non-USOs. Our results show a negative relation between academic inception and firm survival when we control for firm age. Furthermore, we investigate the determinants of the USOs' survival and whether they differ from those of non-USOs. We find that size and asset efficiency affect the USOs' survival. These results lead us to establish some recommendations for decisions-makers, which might be extended to other countries at a similar stage of experience as Spain in USOs activity.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; propensity score matching; firm survival; university spin-offs; technology transfer; value creation; job creation; firm size; asset efficiency; Spain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSB.2016.081424

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 2016 Vol.8 No.4, pp.373 - 390

Accepted: 14 Oct 2016
Published online: 07 Jan 2017 *

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