The knowledge paradox explored: what is impeding the creation of ICT spin-offs?

Abstract

There has been an increased interest in technology transfer activities. This increased interest is inspired by the observation that not all generated knowledge gets translated into commercial products or processes, which is generally referred to as the knowledge paradox. Many researchers have studied academic spin-offs. Within the resource based view of the firm the technological, human and financial starting resources of academic spin-offs have been studied. Little research has however studied the extent to which these resources are affecting spin-off establishment. This paper sheds light on the extent to which different resources were impeding ICT spin-off establishment. The results show that financial resources were hardly affecting ICT spin-off creation, whereas some human and technological resources had a high impact on the spin-off process. These findings call for an increased attention by policy makers and research institutes to provide support in bridging the gap between science and market.

Keywords:

• spin-off
• technology transfer
• knowledge paradox

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all Gate2Start project partners, the European Commission and Tom Deliveyne for excellent assistance in data collection.