The Impact of Entrepreneurship Governance and Institutional Frameworks on Knowledge-Based Spin-Offs

This chapter focuses on different approaches and methods aiming to optimize the institutional framework for academic-spin-offs in the different stages of the entrepreneurship process. A brief description of the main argument, the establishment of an Entrepreneurial University, will enable a better understanding of its complex structure and will provide an insight into the mutual interdependencies in the spin-off value chain. Research-intensive spin-offs generated by universities and research centers are one of the most important innovation motors and the vehicle for disruptive innovations. The large number of scientific results and inventions that frequently remain passive assets of the universities in the form of intellectual properties, could create an enormous potential for starting successful and sustainable enterprises. Besides creating new ideas and innovations, a key factor for success is an appropriate institutional framework along the whole spin-off value chain. A permanent and sustainable Entrepreneurship Culture requires a holistic Entrepreneurship Governance throughout the entire transformation process, from research to the marketable product. In the following chapter the authors will analyze the concept of the Entrepreneurial University and describe the characteristics of Entrepreneurship Governance which may accelerate the process of knowledge-based spin-offs in the universities and research centers. The authors will rely on empirical findings in leading entrepreneurial universities and show how an overall entrepreneurship institutional framework may function. In a next step institutional requirements for each stage of entrepreneurship process will be discussed and the determining factors will be described.