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The Academic Entrepreneur: Myth or Reality for Increased Regional Growth in Europe?

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  • Katalin Erdos
  • Attila Varga

Abstract

Knowledge flows from universities to the regional economy can take different forms ranging from formal research collaborations to consultancy and informal personal connections. One of the knowledge communication channels drawing substantial interest of both researchers and regional policy makers is academic spin-off firm formation. According to the concept of the "academic entrepreneur" (Etzkowitz) university spin-off firm formation has grown naturally from the academic culture of the US where professors traditionally behave very much like entrepreneurs while setting up and maintaining research labs, hiring research assistants, "marketing" research results in conferences and publications or networking with colleagues and funding agencies. Spinning off a company is just a step forward from such entrepreneurial tasks of academics. Thus according to this concept academic motivations are main drivers in university spin-off firm formation in the US. Despite this challenging view the empirical literature pays relatively little attention to the particular "academic" features of university spin-offs and rarely considers the specificities of university entrepreneurship most notably the role of scientists as entrepreneurs. Empirical evidence suggests that Europe performs less successfully than the US in transferring knowledge from university labs to the regional economy via spin-off companies. One potential reason behind this difference is that institutions that determine the continental European research system hold back the emergence of academic entrepreneurs. Thus it is the main research question in our paper whether those specific "academic" drivers behind university spin-off firm formation are present at all in the continental European context. The related question is whether professional characteristics of the academics, their social capital, the norms of academia and the academic and business environment support or hinder these academic motivations? This paper is based on interviews carried out with university researchers who actively participate in firm formation in Hungary. Hungary is an excellent European case since the features of its university system are rooted in the continental (mainly German) tradition, but it also inherits some characteristics from the even more centralized socialist (soviet) tradition.

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  • Katalin Erdos & Attila Varga, 2011. "The Academic Entrepreneur: Myth or Reality for Increased Regional Growth in Europe?," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1451, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1451
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    1. Bijedić, Teita & Chlosta, Simone & Hossinger, Stefan & Kasdorf, Alina & Schneck, Stefan & Schröder, Christian & Werner, Arndt & Nielen, Sebastian & Oschmann, Sebastian, 2017. "Gründungserfolg von Wissenschaftlern an deutschen Hochschulen," IfM-Materialien 257, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    2. Nora Hesse & Rolf Sternberg, 2017. "Alternative growth patterns of university spin-offs: why so many remain small?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 953-984, September.
    3. Attila Varga & Márton Horváth, 2014. "Institutional and regional factors behind university patenting in Europe: an exploratory spatial analysis using EUMIDA data," Chapters, in: Andrea Bonaccorsi (ed.), Knowledge, Diversity and Performance in European Higher Education, chapter 6, pages iii-iii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Todd Davey & Sue Rossano & Peter Sijde, 2016. "Does context matter in academic entrepreneurship? The role of barriers and drivers in the regional and national context," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1457-1482, December.

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    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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