Fostering entrepreneurship: an innovative business model to link innovation and new venture creation

The paper investigates the link between academic innovation and new venture creation. It presents a case study of an Italian firm that has developed an innovative business model, transforming academic innovation into new ventures and tackling some of the key challenges of the academic entrepreneurial process. This case is particularly interesting because it can be seen as an “Enterprises Factory” that has already created 14 startups. It differs from both incubators and venture capital funds because it combines different forms of support—including both technical competencies to develop the innovation and managerial and entrepreneurial skills to create a new venture—and also acts as a founder of each new venture. The paper has theoretical and practical implications since it describes how this innovative business model fosters academic entrepreneurship, and it provides a model for possible replication in different contexts.