Academic and Surrogate Entrepreneurs in University Spin-out Companies

This paper analyzes the findings from a survey of university spin-out company activity over a five year period in the United Kingdom. The Study investigated the attitudes of professionals engaged at the academe-industry interface to the advantages and disadvantages of having academic and external (surrogate) entrepreneurs in leading roles in university spinout companies. The survey covered 57 universities including most of the large UK universities, including the top five and eight out of the top ten in terms of total income from research grants and contracts. The main advantage of having an academic entrepreneur as a leader of a spin-out company was found to be their commitment to the technology in the face of barriers and setbacks, but their lack of commercial experience was a clear disadvantage. In contrast, surrogate entrepreneurs from outside the university have the commercial experience but problems may exist in relation to the possibility that they will have different objectives to the university and / or the academic-inventor. The main barrier to a university engaging surrogate entrepreneurs on a more frequent basis is believed to be associated with the difficulty in identifying and luring appropriate individuals in the absence of any funds. The ten most successful universities in promoting spin-outs (the V10) were significantly more predisposed to surrogate entrepreneurs than other universities. A combination of both academic and surrogate entrepreneurship may be an appropriate solution to creating and developing successful spin-out companies in some circumstances.