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Universities and start-up creation by Ph.D. graduates : the role of scientific and social capital of academic laboratories

Muscio, Alessandro ; Shibayama, Sotaro LU and Ramaciotti, Laura (2022) In Journal of Technology Transfer 47(1). p.147-175
Abstract

This paper investigates how the characteristics of university laboratories influence the propensity of Ph.D. students to entrepreneurship, and thus, contribute to the transfer of academic knowledge to society. As determinants of Ph.D. entrepreneurship, we focus on the lab scientific and social capital as well as on the business experience that Ph.D. students acquire during their training period. The empirical exercise is based on questionnaire survey data of 5266 Ph.D. students in Italian universities in all subject areas. First, we find that 6.7% of the Ph.D. graduates engage in startup activities, and thus, Ph.D. training seems to contribute to knowledge transfer through entrepreneurship. Second, Ph.D. entrepreneurship is driven by... (More)

This paper investigates how the characteristics of university laboratories influence the propensity of Ph.D. students to entrepreneurship, and thus, contribute to the transfer of academic knowledge to society. As determinants of Ph.D. entrepreneurship, we focus on the lab scientific and social capital as well as on the business experience that Ph.D. students acquire during their training period. The empirical exercise is based on questionnaire survey data of 5266 Ph.D. students in Italian universities in all subject areas. First, we find that 6.7% of the Ph.D. graduates engage in startup activities, and thus, Ph.D. training seems to contribute to knowledge transfer through entrepreneurship. Second, Ph.D. entrepreneurship is driven by business experience, in the forms of industry collaboration and industrially applicable research projects, during their training period. Third, the lab scientific capital is negatively associated with Ph.D. entrepreneurship, suggesting a conflict between scientific excellence and entrepreneurship, but this effect is mitigated if students acquire business experience. Fourth, the lab social capital increases the chance of startup when students have business experience. We further investigate the effects of lab environment by distinguishing between startups that are based on university research and startups that are not, finding different determinants.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Academic training, Entrepreneurial university, Firm creation, Ph.D, Start-up, Student entrepreneurship
in
Journal of Technology Transfer
volume
47
issue
1
pages
147 - 175
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85100473009
ISSN
0892-9912
DOI
10.1007/s10961-020-09841-2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
889d344f-8f9d-4491-a924-6d61998ecac8
date added to LUP
2021-02-18 13:04:27
date last changed
2022-06-29 18:45:36
@article{889d344f-8f9d-4491-a924-6d61998ecac8,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper investigates how the characteristics of university laboratories influence the propensity of Ph.D. students to entrepreneurship, and thus, contribute to the transfer of academic knowledge to society. As determinants of Ph.D. entrepreneurship, we focus on the lab scientific and social capital as well as on the business experience that Ph.D. students acquire during their training period. The empirical exercise is based on questionnaire survey data of 5266 Ph.D. students in Italian universities in all subject areas. First, we find that 6.7% of the Ph.D. graduates engage in startup activities, and thus, Ph.D. training seems to contribute to knowledge transfer through entrepreneurship. Second, Ph.D. entrepreneurship is driven by business experience, in the forms of industry collaboration and industrially applicable research projects, during their training period. Third, the lab scientific capital is negatively associated with Ph.D. entrepreneurship, suggesting a conflict between scientific excellence and entrepreneurship, but this effect is mitigated if students acquire business experience. Fourth, the lab social capital increases the chance of startup when students have business experience. We further investigate the effects of lab environment by distinguishing between startups that are based on university research and startups that are not, finding different determinants.</p>}},
  author       = {{Muscio, Alessandro and Shibayama, Sotaro and Ramaciotti, Laura}},
  issn         = {{0892-9912}},
  keywords     = {{Academic training; Entrepreneurial university; Firm creation; Ph.D; Start-up; Student entrepreneurship}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{147--175}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Technology Transfer}},
  title        = {{Universities and start-up creation by Ph.D. graduates : the role of scientific and social capital of academic laboratories}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09841-2}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10961-020-09841-2}},
  volume       = {{47}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}