Are Universities Entrepreneurial?
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Ó Springer 2005
Reviews and Overviews
Are Universities Entrepreneurial? A Review of Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spin offs and Wealth Creation by Scott Shane. Edward Elgar UK
ROSA GRIMALDI Department of Management, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Throughout the history of modern universities, following important institutional and organizational changes in several countries around the world, academic spin-offs have become an important element of the economic landscape. Governments and public institutions, which are aware of the important contribution that academic spin-offs can give to economic and technological development, have been increasingly supporting their creation and development. In addition to impact economic growth and development, academic spin-offs are also a source of important benefits for universities: through academic spin-offs and other activities oriented towards the commercial exploitation of academic knowledge, universities can directly look into generating new sources of revenues, enhancing their reputation, attracting more and brighter students by providing advanced extracurricular activities and opportunities, attracting better and more productive faculty members by offering concrete opportunities to commercially leverage their intellectual achievements. While the group of scholars investigating this subject is not large, many of them have made important contributions to our understanding of this topic. Scott Shane is definitely among them. Scott Shane is Professor of Economics in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, where he teaches Entrepreneurship. He is one of the most outstanding scholars in entrepreneurship and new venture creation, with a long record of publications in this area, covering more than 15 years. For three years, from 1996 to 1999 when Scott Shane was assistant Professor at MIT, he had access to the MIT licensing office files containing information about all the MIT start-ups, and university owned licences. He also had the chance to interact with MIT Technology licensing offices director and personnel and to get from them important insights which further stimulated his research. This book mirrors some of the most important pieces of his research on university spin-offs, initiated with in-depth qualitative studies of
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the technologies and companies spun out from MIT, based on surveys of investors, statistical analysis of MIT inventions, and quantitative comparisons of different universities’ technology licensing activities. In addition to Scott Shane’s own research, the book also draws heavily on the work of other scholars, who have studied university spin-offs. Scott Shane makes an excellent review of published papers on university spin-offs and technology transfer from scholarly journals, conference proceedings, and unpublished research. Scott Shane book is an attempt to explain the formation of university spin-off companies and the role that they have in the commercialization of university technology and wea
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