Fabrice Pirnay

A stage model of academic spin-off creation

Abstract The commercialisation of scientific and technological knowledge produced within publicly funded research institutions such as universities, laboratories, research centres, and so forth, is increasingly considered by policymakers as raw material for developing and sustaining regional economic growth. This paper focuses on one of the most promising ways to transfer research results to the market place, namely, the creation of academic spin-offs. Its main aim is to identify, understand, and distinguish the major issues raised by the creation of such companies from the point of view of both public and academic authorities. To achieve this, some well-known international spin-off support programmes have been benchmarked. We used these observations to build up a general model that puts forward the major issues involved in the transformation of research results into the creation of economic value within the perimeter of universities. Based on inductive research, the model is composed of four successive stages interacting in a sequential manner.

Toward a Typology of University Spin-offs

This paper discusses existing definitions of USOs in order to reconcile them and to provide criteria for classifying and understanding the different facets of this multi-headed concept. Drawing the boundaries of this concept and elucidating its variety through a typology are therefore the two main objectives of this paper. USOs are defined as new firms created to exploit commercially some knowledge, technology or research results developed within a university. The proposed typology is based on two key discriminatory factors, namely (1) the status of individuals involved in the new business venturing process (researchers or students) and (2) the nature of knowledge transferred from university to the new venture (codified or tacit), inducing the nature of the USO activities (product or service-oriented).

An evaluation of public support measures for private external consultancies to SMEs in the Walloon Region of Belgium

This paper is a contribution to the somewhat scarce literature on the scientific evaluation of small business policies, and evaluates public support measures for private external consultants to SMEs in the Walloon Region of Belgium. A critical analysis of the supply and the demand, an evaluation of the efficiency and the effectiveness of policy measures, and real policy recommendations are presented. The rationale for offering subsidized private external consultancies as a mixed product was confirmed by the SMEs in the Walloon Region. In general, the consultants received favourable evaluations from the SMEs. However, our empirical findings corroborate the shortcomings reported in the literature on the supply of publicly financed advisory services. We found a profusion of support services, which led to confusion, a lack of conceptual integration of services, the exclusion of certain categories of SMEs, and adverse selection where the consultants push forward their own solutions. Subsidized private external consultancies to SMEs are effective in the Walloon Region, in that SMEs refer to their positive qualitative impact. However, they have no significant influence on net job creation, turnover, or financial indicators. These findings reflect the qualitative targets of the SMEs in using private external consultancy and their singularity. To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the support measures for the use of private external consultancies by SMEs in the Walloon Region and to avoid adverse selection, we recommend that the neo-Austrian approach is adopted. This means that the real needs of the entrepreneur and of the SME, and symmetric power relations between SMEs on the one side and public authorities and consultants on the other side, determine the publicly financed advisory process.

Facets of Technology Incubation

The authors review the different facets of the incubation process for high-tech companies and highlight its complex and multidimensional nature. They then assess what are the most critical factors in incubation in the context of the market supply and demand for incubation facilities. They identify two key facets, selectivity and productivity requirements, and through these construct a typology that is founded on non-ambiguous factors. They discuss the implications of this typology using data from exploratory research and suggest areas of focus for further empirical studies.