Investigating the association between universities' corporate governance structure and the knowledge transfer performance outcomes

Purpose The aim of this paper is to provide evidence the relationship between governance structure universities and universities' knowledge transfer (KT) performance outcomes measured in terms university spin-off firms spin-offs (USOs). Design/methodology/approach board directors has been analyzed under three profiles: incidence internal belonging STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics) faculties, women external directors. Findings findings a significant positive association, for southern Italian state universities, presence establishment Originality/value article original as, best authors’ knowledge, no study, except by Meoli et al. (2019), examined relation academic spin-offs.