Academic spinoffs and regional development: new insights for future research

Although the literature on University-Industry knowledge transfer has rapidly expanded in the past decades, the contribution of higher education institutions to regional development has gone under the radar, with even less attention paid to the relationship between academic spinoffs and regional development. We argue that it is time to take stock of the current knowledge on the topic and to provide directions for future research which can guide policy making decisions. To accomplish this, we speculate on how academic spinoffs can contribute to regional economic development and survey the existing evidence on this relationship. More importantly, we highlight two major research streams which can contribute to this area of study: (i) the empirical economics of management and (ii) hybrid organisations. We contend that a better understanding of these two lines of research can prove useful in guiding future research on the contribution of higher education institutions to regional development. We conclude by indicating some of the research directions.