The Social Innovation of Academic Spin-Offs From a Multilevel Approach

The academic entrepreneurship literature has yet to consider the factors that affect social innovation in academic spin-offs. Given this gap, this study adopted a knowledge-based perspective and considers the antecedents of social innovation at two levels of analysis: academic spin-offs and parent universities. Specifically, we analyzed the influence of academic spin-offs' technological competence, entrepreneurial team functional heterogeneity, and funding type; and the moderating role of the parent university's social responsibility. A multilevel analysis was applied to a sample of 165 academic spin-offs. The results revealed that technological competence, entrepreneurial team functional heterogeneity, and public funding sources positively influenced social innovation. However, venture capital funding negatively affected innovation. The results also showed that the parent university's social responsibility moderated the effect of functional heterogeneity but not the influence of technological competence. These findings contribute to the integration of the academic entrepreneurship literature within the field of social innovation.