Determinants of growth in research spin-offs: a resource-based perspective

There are strong expectations towards research spin-off companies despite the fact that it seems that many of them do not grow in size. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the open debate on the growth -or non-growth- of research spin-offs through a focus on Italy. A resource-based perspective is adopted for identifying the critical variables determining growth determinants in these companies. Our multivariate analysis highlights unexpected results about the involvement of industrial partners and venture capitalists, the size of the IPRs’ portfolio at founding, previous experiences of the promoting partners in R&D and managerial functions. Implications of these results are suggested.