the role of human capital of management team on performance in iranian academic spin-offs

abstract. academic spin-offs are recognized as the main means of technology transfer, contribute to the commercialization of the results of academic research, leading to society wealth creation. academic spin-offs start with some major disadvantages related to their liability of newness, smallness and their university origination. it is been argued that academic spin-off need to strengthen their team management human capital to reach to sustainable return. this paper follows resource-based view and entrepreneurship literature to investigate the role of human capital of management team in terms of experience and in terms of as entrepreneurial behavior on the performance of iranian academic spin-offs. the effect of human capital on the performance of academic spin-offs is studied using data derived from a survey of 79 firms operating in different sectors; agriculture, industry and services sectors. it is found that entrepreneurial experience leads to financial performance while entrepreneurial orientation leads to innovative performance in iranian academic spin-offs. the paper has some managerial implications and suggestions for future research.