Academic export-oriented spinoffs: An empirical study of Italian spinoffs Alice CIVERA University of Bergamo Authors: Civera Alice, Meoli Michele, Vismara Silvio College of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology 28 th – 30 th October 2015 Technology Transfer Annual Conference 2015: Micro, Institutional and Practice Perspectives of Technology Transfer

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs The rate of establishment of academic spin-offs has proliferated in recent years and so has done the literature on the subject (Shane et al., 2014) –Immediacy and ease of measuring the so-called university third mission (Wright et al., 2004) –Enablers of economic development by translating research results into workable technologies leading to market solutions (Pattnaik & Pandey, 2014). –Commercialization of university technologies (Etzkowitz, 2003; Shane 2004) –University spinoffs and the mission of research and teaching Further source of remuneration (Pattnaik & Pandey, 2014) 2 Reasons of academic spinoffs

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Several articles in literature highlight the role of holistic conditions in fostering the creation of academic spin-offs –Regional context and its characteristics (Sternberg, 2014) –Entrepreneurial features of universities (Braunerhjelm, 2008; Patton and Kenney, 2010) greater or lesser research orientation (Feldman, 2000) research and development expenditures (Lee et al., 2004) We want to introduce another enabler factor to the performance of academic spinoffs, the degree of internationalization of universities 3 Determinants of academic spinoffs

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs The extant literature provides a list of different factors that may impact a spin-off performance (Bigliardi et al., 2013) –Founder’s needs individual desires (Kriegesmann, 2000), history and experience (Helm and Maurorer, 2007) –Firm’s characteristics Type of technology, ability to patent (Heirman and Clarysse, 2004 ) –University characteristics Financing (Lockett et al., 2005), incubation strategies (Clarysse et al., 2005), IP policy (O’Shea et al., 2005), TT process (Venturini, 2013), networks integration (Scholten, 2006) –External context Infrastructures and sector (Phan and Siegel, 2006; Helm and Maurorer, 2007). 4 Performance of academic spinoffs

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Among the university characteristics, internationalization hold a great importance since it is preparatory to the development of all three missions of university (de Wit 2015): –Teaching Open-minded students in an unstable job market (Kirby & Ibrahim, 2011) –Research Cooperation leads to positive synergies regarding resources and skills, innovations and investments (Knight, 2008) –Third mission technology commercialization and the establishment of new ventures. 5 University internationalization

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Since the literature highlights the key role of university in the establishment of academic spinoffs, we want to test if the trend towards internationalization of universities contributes to create –Spinoffs with a high growth rate Growth in sales revenues –International-oriented spinoffs Foreign sales 6 The impact on performance of academic spinoffs

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs The sample is made of spin-offs from Italian universities, established from 1999 to 2013 –Law 297/1999 and Ministerial Decree 593/2000 The sample consists of 508 academic spinoffs –Presence of import/export activities for at least 5 years (Texeira and Grande, 2013) Among these 508 spinoffs, 48 are internationalized (9.5%) –Monteiro et al. (2013) achieved the most similar outcome, using a sample of Portuguese firms To perform our longitudinal study, we use panel-data fixed effect linear and logit regressions 7 Data and research design

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs 8 Variable definition VariablesDefinitionSource Dependent variables Growth of spinoffs The difference in sales revenues of spinoffs in the third year of life and the first divided by the turnover for the first year AIDA Internationalization of spinoffs Dummy variable that has value 1 if the academic spinoff is involved in import/export activity, 0 otherwise MINT ITALY Indipendent variables Internationalization (Students) (%) Ratio between the number of international students and total students per university per year MIUR Internationalization (Research) Ration between number of international articles published and total number of articles published per university per year SCOPUS Internationalization (Third mission) Dummy: presence of international documents from TTOs per university per year University websites University-level control variables MIUR/SCOPUS Local context-level control variables ISTAT Firm-level control variables AIDA

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs 9 InternationalNot international T-test Growth of spinoffs Internationalization (Students) (%) ** Internationalization (Research) Internationalization (Third Mission) University size (000s) Faculty research productivity Patenting activity at university level Regional GDP growth (%) Gini Coefficient Regional R&D Expenditure (%) STEM graduates ** Firm size (000s) Firm total assets (000 €) ** Firm profitability (000 €) Firm leverage (%) Descriptive statistics

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Supported hypothesis Positive effect of internationalization measures ‐ Individually (model 1,2,3) ‐ Interactions (model 4) 10 Results – Growth in sales revenues (1)(2)(3)(4) % international students0.483***0.254 % international publications0.119***0.114** International spinoffs2.380**3.018** University size % publication faculty0.022** * University patents0.0582* Regional GDP0.000*** Gini coefficient Total R&D expenditure-3.122**-2.573** ** STEM graduates0.741***0.695***0.661***0.759*** Employees0.576*0.653*0.571**0.574* Total assets EBITDA0.014***0.012***0.014***0.013*** Debt/equity ratio2.497**2.180**2.575***2.562*** Constant Observations508 Log-likelihood Pseudo R

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Supported hypothesis –International students are inclined to start international business. 11 (1)(2)(3)(4) % international students0.219*0.321** % international publications ** International spinoffs University size % publication faculty1.386***3.184***1.187***3.991*** University patents Regional GDP0.000**0.000*** 0.000* Gini coefficient25.87**21.18**21.94**26.74** Total R&D expenditure STEM graduates-0.216***-0.248***-0.219***-0.248*** Employees Total assets EBITDA Debt/equity ratio Constant-13.15***-13.47***-12.98***-14.20*** Observations508 Log-likelihood Pseudo R Results – Internationalization

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Implications –University managers To enhance the academic internationalization process –Academic spinoff managers To focus international effort on foreign markets already connected through the home university –Policy makers Evaluation of social and economic engagement of universities Limitations –Specific analysis for the Italian context –Limitation in the choice of variables Future research –New measures of internationalization 12 Conclusions

Dublin 28 th -30 th October 2015 Academic export-oriented spin-offs: an empirical study of Italian spin-offs Thanks for your attention Feel free to ask any question Alice Civera 13