Essays on Environmental Conditions and Growth of Academic Spin-Offs

This dissertation explores different perspectives on the growth trajectory of companies spun off from publicly funded research. It is composed of four papers, of which the first one provides an overview of the environment for spin-offs in Canada, and the three remaining papers present quantitative studies. Environmental factors are considered in the quantitative studies in two ways: Through explicit operationalization and through a two-country design of the empirical research – using the examples of Germany and Canada. The three empirical papers document how both of these environmental influences are significant. Where analysed, significant differences are found between Germany and Canada, in particular in the higher-order interaction terms, indicate that different combinations of factors lead to company sales growth in the two national contexts observed.