Academic Entrepreneurship in Europe

Citation

Woollard, D. (2008), "Academic Entrepreneurship in Europe", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 63-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550810852848

The term entrepreneurial university was first coined (Etkowitz, 1983) in the context of what were described as “research universities”. The entrepreneurial process referred to was, typically, patent licensing or the creation of spin‐off companies based on scientific discovery within the university (Etkowitz, 1998; O'Shea et al., 2004). The individual members of faculty involved in these processes were termed “academic entrepreneurs”. For many years, “academic entrepreneurship” studies related specifically to the commercialisation of outputs from scientific research by university staff. However, widespread acceptance by most policy makers, and by many researchers, regarding the important contribution the commercialisation of science by universities has had in economic development is increasingly being challenged (Fairweather, 1990; Shattock, 1999). As a result, in more recent years the term “academic entrepreneurship” has been used to describe an ever broadening range of university activities, moving from its original narrow concept of the commercialisation of university scientific research to include the engagement of academic faculty with more general economic and social development (Boyle, 2004; Bramwell and Wolfe, 2005; Finkle et al., 2006). Therefore, despite being familiar with some of the previous work of the authors, there was still a sense of disappointment to find that this book related to work on academic entrepreneurship solely in the context of its earlier, narrow definition. However, this sense of disappointment was soon dispelled by the range and quality of the empirical data which underpins this work and by the depth of analysis and discussion contained in each of its chapters.

The overall structure of the book and the organisation of material within chapters are well thought out with the authors skilfully weaving empirical material from diverse sources into an easily readable holistic account of the university spin‐off phenomenon. By doing so, the authors greatly assist the reader to understand the economic drivers, the rationale behind extant policy initiatives, the underlying influences that determine the characteristics of spin‐offs, and the factors that influence their growth and survival. Conclusions and policy implications drawn from the work are particularly insightful and relevant, not only to science commercialisation, but to those involved in wider aspects of academic entrepreneurship.

The perceived innovation gap between the USA and Europe is illustrated in the introductory chapter as the driver of European innovation policy and then set against the “European Innovation Paradox” (i.e. higher number of scientific papers per academic capita in Europe than the USA but significantly lower number of patents per capita). Issues relating to institutional differences between the US and Europe, and within Europe, are also described, serving as an easily understandable rationale for the ensuing approach taken in the book. Chapter 2 sets out in some detail the policy approaches to creating university spin‐outs in the different European countries that were the subject of these studies (Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, UK). Detailed case studies of policy in France and the UK seem to dispel the notion of a common European approach to bridging the gap between US and European spin‐off creation. Although most government initiatives aimed at the promotion of spin‐off companies are said to share the idea that economic growth depends heavily on the development of technology transfer between public research and industry (page 37), at the national level very different policy rationales and approaches are clearly demonstrated.

Chapters 3 to 6 set out to characterise the creation and development of university spin‐offs in Europe. An interesting taxonomy of spin‐offs that is unrelated to their science base is developed from existing literature in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 considers the institutional level processes that impact on spin‐off creation and growth, i.e. incubation models. This excellent chapter describes and characterises different incubator models in terms of the services offered, their effectiveness and there wider applicability. It is evident from this point on in the book that the authors are not locked in to a narrow view of academic entrepreneurship. Phases of spin‐off development identified from the empirical studies are outlined in Chapter 5. Useful descriptions of the five phases identified (research, opportunity‐framing, pre‐organisation, reorientation, sustainable returns) are included as are those of the “critical junctures” that constrain the development path from one phase to the next. Phases and critical junctures from a number of real cases are presented in tabular form, an illustration that clearly demonstrates the practitioner relevance of the concepts being discussed. Interestingly, the chapter concludes that the ability to continually reconfigure resources, capabilities and social capital endowments is what characterised those spin‐offs that had developed sustained returns. These organisational capabilities are linked directly to the quality of the entrepreneurial teams that manage the spin‐offs. The importance of entrepreneurial teams to spin‐off success is developed further in Chapter 6. A theoretical perspective is developed from a brief literature review against which the empirical data was analysed by considering four factors: team definition, team structure, behavioural integration and team evolution. Some new insights emerge on how entrepreneurship is infused into spin‐offs through team evolution as the newly formed company moves from the research to the independent venture phase.

The perennial problem of access to finance is addressed in Chapter 7. The range of, and relative access to, different funding sources are compared across the five countries included in the study. In contrast to the USA, venture capital rather than internally generated funds are shown to be more important in the early stages of spin‐off development in Europe. However, although universities refer to the difficulties involved in attracting venture capital, little evidence was found of them developing mechanisms to increase the availability of internal funding or debt financing.

This book finishes on a high. The final chapter contains succinct conclusions drawn from each preceding chapter followed by suggestions for linked policy actions. The authors very successfully link the outcomes of their specific empirical studies to the general issues faced by universities as they attempt to deliver on their “third mission”. Many of the lessons learned and conclusions drawn from this work are applicable to academic entrepreneurs in whichever faculty or subject area they work. As such, this book is a valuable contribution to the field of academic entrepreneurship for academics studying this area, for practising academic entrepreneurs of whatever discipline as well as for policy makers.