The Open Innovation Imperative : Perspectives on Success from Faculty Entrepreneurs - Dissertation Executive Summary

University spinoffs are an important vehicle for the dissemination of new knowledge – and have the potential to generate jobs and economic growth. Despite their importance, little research exists on the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship. This paper builds on the emergent Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE) to explore how academic entrepreneurs define success and the factors responsible for that success. The findings indicate that commercialization is a distinguishing characteristic of initial spinoff success and that a multitude of factors such as financial resources and the technology licensing process are responsible for that success. Using logit regression, the findings also yield several significant predictors of commercialization including venture capital, multiple and external licenses, and outside management, among others. The results strongly support an open innovation approach for spinoff success and have important implications for university, state, and federal policymakers