The effects of university rules on spinoff creation: The case of academia in Italy

tThe economics literature provides rich evidence on the convergence between the institutional factors andindividual-level characteristics influencing the involvement of academia in knowledge transfer activitiesand spinoff creation. However, little is known about the effects of internal university regulations onacademic entrepreneurship. In the last ten years, spinoff activity from academia in Italy has been intensiveand most academic institutions have policies related to the regulation of academic entrepreneurshippractices, known as ‘Regolamento Spinoff’. This paper investigates the impact of the set of universityrules governing the creation of spinoffs, on institutional capability to generate new ventures. Based onpanel-data analysis using detailed university-level data on academic spinoffs, we identify three classes ofinstitutionally-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 entrepreneurialrisk. We find that at least some rules pertaining to each of these three classes have some effect on spinoffcreation. In particular, we find that monetary incentives play a significant role in promoting academicspinoff activity, and that overly-restrictive university rules regarding contract research have a negativeeffect on spinoff creation.