Abstracts
Abstract
Research spin-offs (RSOs) are considered as potential key opportunities for universities. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on RSOs through an examination of the relationship between these firms and their parent institute: the goal is to understand in which extent the university involvement could make the difference or not. Original empirical evidence on the Italian RSOs is provided by means of a questionnaire investigation, with a focus on companies that aroused more interest from their university and those that did not. Descriptive statistics is followed by a cluster and a factor analysis. Two main groups of RSOs are identified: open-oriented and autonomous-oriented. It seems that the strength of university interest towards a RSO has consequences on company orientation.
Keywords:
- research spin-offs,
- technology transfer,
- high-tech entrepreneurship,
- cluster analysis,
- factor analysis
Résumé
Les entreprises spin-off de recherche (RSOs) sont largement reconnues comme une source d’opportunité clé pour le développement potentiel des universités. Cet article vise à analyser le rôle des RSOs en partant de la relation qu’elles ont avec leur institut parent. L’objectif est de mesurer plus spécialement l’importance - ou non - de l’implication des universités dans la nature et la réussite de telles entreprises. La recherche s’appuie sur des données empiriques originales collectées et constituées sur les RSOs italiennes. Le traitement systématique de ce matériau (statistique descriptive, analyse factorielle et de cluster) permet de valider les hypothèses de départ car il montre que la force de l’intérêt de l’université envers une RSO a des conséquences significatives sur l’orientation et la structure de l’entreprise. La recherche permet d’identifier plus précisément deux principaux groupes de RSOs que l’on peut qualifier d’open-oriented et autonomous-oriented.
Mots-clés :
- entreprises spin-off de la recherche,
- transfert de technologie,
- entrepreneuriat de haute technologie,
- analyse cluster,
- analyse factorielle
Resumen
Las empresas spin-off de investigación (o RSOs por sus siglas en inglés) son reconocidas como proveedoras de oportunidades clave para la valorización de las universidades. Este artículo busca detallar este papel al examinar la naturaleza y la importancia de la relación entre estas empresas y sus instituciones matrices: el objetivo es entender en qué medida la participación de las universidades pesa, o no, en su éxito. El artículo se basa en material empírico original sobre las RSOs italianas creado a partir de una larga encuesta por cuestionario. Esta encuesta permite clasificar las empresas según el grado de implicación manifestado por sus universidades de origen. El análisis se basa en estadísticas descriptivas enriquecidas por un análisis factorial y de clusters. El estudio permitió confirmar las hipótesis de inicio: el peso del interés que la universidad otorga a su RSO afecta la orientación estratégica de las mismas. El análisis distingue dos grupos principales: las RSO con orientación abierta, y las RSO con orientación autónoma.
Palabras clave:
- empresas spin-off de investigación,
- transferencia de tecnología,
- iniciativa empresarial de alta tecnología,
- análisis de clusters,
- análisis factorial
Appendices
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