Actors of university entrepreneurial ecosystems

University entrepreneurial ecosystems are characterized by a specific set of actors that support academic spinout company identification, formation, growth, and survival. The chapter explores what is known about each of the actors, including universities, academic staff, technology transfer offices, students, science parks and business incubators, external management talent, investors. Specifically, the chapter examines how these actors interact with each other, when they become important in the lifecycle of the spinout company, and where they are located. These actors form diverse types of networks that serve spinouts and evolve together with them, specifically pointing towards actors that play early stage roles, such as technology transfer officers, academic staff, and universities, and later stage roles involving predominantly external management talent and investors. As such, the chapter builds the evolving model of university entrepreneurial ecosystem from a spinout company perspective, changing its composition and configuration with phases of spinout company development.