Spin-offs – the process by which employees of an established organization leave this organization in order to create a new one – are a common phenomenon. In certain industries, such as management consulting, they even constitute the prevailing mode of entry (Garvin, 1983). Spin-offs are an inevitable by-product of Corporate Entrepreneurship programs and as such rather frequent in hi tech compan...

In a risk-neutral stochastic environment where bankruptcy is possible, it is well-established that coinsurance incentives may lead creditors to prefer mergers over spin-offs, while shareholders may prefer spin-offs. This paper shows that there are two distinct reasons for this. One is due to the concavity of the debt payoff function in the face value of the debt, while the other arises from imp...

For academic spin-offs I analyze the length of the time period between the founder’s leaving of academia and the establishment of her firm. A duration analysis reveals that a longer time-lag is caused by the necessity of assembling complementary skills, either by acquisition by a single founder or by searching for suitable teammembers. Furthermore, new ventures are established faster if there h...

In this paper, we explore factors that may determine the performance of university spin-off companies. In particular, we focus on socioeconomic networks and support received from incubator organizations. Using spin-offs from the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands as a case study, we explore whether spin-offs’ performance is influenced by the characteristics of their networks, i.e. t...

University spin-off firms are believed to contribute to innovation of the (regional) economy through entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer and linkages with larger firms. Social networks play a vital role in the early years of spin-off firms, but there is virtually no knowledge on the critical characteristics of these networks, and on differences between highly innovative and medium-to-low innov...

This paper investigates the relationship between the level of experience of managers and founders, and the likelihood of survival of their new firms. We take advantage of a comprehensive dataset covering the entire Danish labor market from 1980-2000. This is used to trace the activities of top ranked members of start-ups prior to their founding, and follow the fate of these firms. More specific...

This paper aims to better understand the development of entrepreneurial competencies to create new ventures within the non-commercial academic environment. We build upon the evolutionary perspective considering where resources come from to help define these competencies and explain their paths of development. The study follows the creation and early growth of four university spin-offs within th...