Heterogeneous effects of spinoff foundations on the means of technology transfer: the role of past academic-industry collaborations

Abstract

Focusing on the Italian population of academic entrepreneurs, we analyze the effect of establishing a spinoff firm on researchers attitudes towards carrying out other activities in collaboration with firms, namely, co-publishing and co-patenting. We investigate the heterogeneity in this effect in terms of existing collaborations with firms in the pre-spinoff period. Using a counterfactual analysis on subgroups, we verify that academic entrepreneurs with previous publications with firms diminish their co-publishing and increase their co-patenting after founding a spinoff. Conversely, academic entrepreneurs who had no previous publications with firms increase their co-publishing and decrease their co-patenting. We maintain that such results are related to academics learning processes connected with their previous technology transfer activities. The policy implications are related to technology transfer aims and contradict the idea that promoting spinoffs is an appropriate one-size-fits-all initiative.