%0 Conference Paper %1 Giones2016b %A Giones, Ferran %A Billström, Anders %A Rasmussen, Einar %A Novotny, Adam %B Technology Transfer Society (T2S) Conference %C Arizona %D 2016 %K imported %T Technology Novelty and Performance of Academic Spin-offs in Norway %X Academic Spin-Offs (ASOs) are given the mission to bring to society science and technology innovations. Nevertheless, the relative weak market performance of ASOs has recently been a focus of discussion, questioning the economic and social pay-off of the overall innovation policies and institutional support mechanisms to promote ASOs activities. For example, while studies from the U.S. show that these firms can create new jobs, generate tax income, develop radical and breakthrough technologies and contribute to regional development (e.g. Shane, 2003). Other studies from Europe indicate that most ASOs do not grow or grow slowly (Mustar, Wright and Clarysse, 2008). Most prior research suggests that the ability of ASOs to successfully deliver their mission could be related to individual (e.g. human capital), organizational (e.g. team characteristics, board composition, network of partners) and institutional factors (e.g. university, Technology Transfer Office and support mechanisms). These factors would influence the organizational processes and strategies differently to successfully commercialize the technology products or services of the ASO. However, this stream of research is mostly concerned about the entrepreneurial process while not paying attention to the technology development process. At the same time, research on technology development, that is present in the innovation literature, suggests that a high degree of technological novelty would actually increase development uncertainty, and influence on the commercialization strategy. In this sense, radical technological breakthroughs that challenge existing technologies in an industry would require a different commercialization strategy than incremental innovations that help to improve an already existing product or process. Taken together, there is a need to integrate factors within entrepreneurship literature with characteristics of the technology to develop our knowledge on the different development paths of ASOs. We posit that better understanding of what drives the commercialization strategy of ASOs could provide further insights on the observed heterogeneous performance of ASOs. We propose to study whether ASO's technology novelty influences their commercialization strategy, taking into account how the origin of the technology and its IP protectability mediate this relationship. We ask the following research question: how does the novelty of the technology influence the performance of ASOs? We use a sample of 155 ASOs from Norway to study this relationship and establish profiles of ASOs taking into account the different technology novelty dimensions and different commercialization strategies. We control for individual, organizational and institutional factors. We combine a survey study with longitudinal archival data from of the ASOs to test the hypotheses and illustrate our results.

@inproceedings{Giones2016b, abstract = {Academic Spin-Offs (ASOs) are given the mission to bring to society science and technology innovations. Nevertheless, the relative weak market performance of ASOs has recently been a focus of discussion, questioning the economic and social pay-off of the overall innovation policies and institutional support mechanisms to promote ASOs activities. For example, while studies from the U.S. show that these firms can create new jobs, generate tax income, develop radical and breakthrough technologies and contribute to regional development (e.g. Shane, 2003). Other studies from Europe indicate that most ASOs do not grow or grow slowly (Mustar, Wright and Clarysse, 2008). Most prior research suggests that the ability of ASOs to successfully deliver their mission could be related to individual (e.g. human capital), organizational (e.g. team characteristics, board composition, network of partners) and institutional factors (e.g. university, Technology Transfer Office and support mechanisms). These factors would influence the organizational processes and strategies differently to successfully commercialize the technology products or services of the ASO. However, this stream of research is mostly concerned about the entrepreneurial process while not paying attention to the technology development process. At the same time, research on technology development, that is present in the innovation literature, suggests that a high degree of technological novelty would actually increase development uncertainty, and influence on the commercialization strategy. In this sense, radical technological breakthroughs that challenge existing technologies in an industry would require a different commercialization strategy than incremental innovations that help to improve an already existing product or process. Taken together, there is a need to integrate factors within entrepreneurship literature with characteristics of the technology to develop our knowledge on the different development paths of ASOs. We posit that better understanding of what drives the commercialization strategy of ASOs could provide further insights on the observed heterogeneous performance of ASOs. We propose to study whether ASO's technology novelty influences their commercialization strategy, taking into account how the origin of the technology and its IP protectability mediate this relationship. We ask the following research question: how does the novelty of the technology influence the performance of ASOs? We use a sample of 155 ASOs from Norway to study this relationship and establish profiles of ASOs taking into account the different technology novelty dimensions and different commercialization strategies. We control for individual, organizational and institutional factors. We combine a survey study with longitudinal archival data from of the ASOs to test the hypotheses and illustrate our results.}, added-at = {2020-10-01T10:49:31.000+0200}, address = {Arizona}, author = {Giones, Ferran and Billstr{\"{o}}m, Anders and Rasmussen, Einar and Novotny, Adam}, biburl = {https://puma.ub.uni-stuttgart.de/bibtex/2dced5d4143ad7792c79a377dbb287217/ferrangiones}, booktitle = {Technology Transfer Society (T2S) Conference}, interhash = {bcdf9acf551a53a07038aba4d0dd0579}, intrahash = {dced5d4143ad7792c79a377dbb287217}, keywords = {imported}, timestamp = {2020-10-01T08:50:12.000+0200}, title = {{Technology Novelty and Performance of Academic Spin-offs in Norway}}, year = 2016 }