A stage model of academic spin-off creation

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. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.