Obstacles Of The Spanish And Galician University Spin-Offs

The external environment in which universities carry out their activities has changed substantially in the last decades. As a result, nowadays universities are asked to meet a wider range of social and economic needs of society. Therefore, traditional universities are now transforming into entrepreneurial universities. One of the ways to improve interaction between university and society is the transfer of knowledge. And one tool Universities have to carry out this is by creating spin-off firms. Over the past few years this University spin-offs have became increasingly important in knowledge transfer, and as a result, they have become the focus of governments and higher education institutions. In fact, recent decades have seen a growing number of companies stemming from university-developed technology. However, this kind of firms uses to face up to the shortage of funds and the lack of the owners’ managerial skills. The objective of this paper is to analyze the universities’ spin-off activity in Spain and Galicia, paying attention to the main problems of this kind of firms. This analysis offers interesting opportunities for a better understanding of universities’ spin-off activity in countries like Spain and Galicia, where universities have been characterized by a short tradition of ties with industry.