Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Academic Spin-Offs: The UNITI Business Case

The aim of this research is to analyze the academic spin-offs like companies able to drive innovation and entrepreneurship and to fast the technological transfer from the academic research to the business. The research method includes both a literature review, to clarify the meaning of academic spin-off, and an empirical investigation. The authors selected a set of academic spin-offs settled in Genova during the latest years, thanks to the UNITI project. 17 spin-offs have been examined, to understand their nature and their role in the economic context. The data for the empirical analysis were collected from the spin-offs balance sheets. The results of this survey are useful to better define the nature and the functioning of academic spin-offs and their role in technological exploitation and value creation.