The Effects of University Rules on Spinoff Creation: The case of academia in Italy

The economics literature provides rich evidence on the convergence between the institutional factors and individual-level characteristics influencing the involvement of academia in knowledge transfer activities and spinoff creation. However, little is known about the effects of internal university regulations on academic entrepreneurship. In the last ten years, spinoff activity from academia in Italy has been intensive and most academic institutions have policies related to the regulation of academic entrepreneurship practices, known as ‘Regolamento Spinoff’. This paper investigates the impact of the set of university rules governing the creation of spinoffs, on institutional capability to generate new ventures. Based on panel-data analysis using detailed university-level data on academic spinoffs, we identify three classes of institutionally-defined rules that can motivate faculty members to establish a spinoff company. These are: general rules and procedures; rules regulating monetary incentives; rules related to the entrepreneurial risk. We find that at least some rules pertaining to each of these three classes have some effect on spinoff creation. In particular, we find that monetary incentives play a significant role in promoting academic spinoff activity, and that overly-restrictive university rules regarding contract research have a negative effect on spinoff creation.