Academic Knowledge Vs Enterpreneurship: The Spin off way

Abstract

Abstract: The Universities and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have come to be-regarded as key sources of knowledge utilizable in the pursuit of economic growth through commercialization and transfer of knowledge activities (Huggin and Johnston, 2009; 2015). The University therefore, not only play a role in the creation of knowledge, but also has a key role in knowledge transfer in the community and in society with the ultimate aim to create value. This situation is well known like “third mission” of University, in which it is possible to consider the set of activities with which Universities and the research institutions come into direct interaction with the company, providing a new form of contribution that accompanies the others traditional University’s missions like “teaching” and “research” (source: ANVUR). It is important to state the heterogeneity of the third mission, which cannot be reduced to a single dimension; but obviously, the focus of this research work is the deepening of the economic exploitation of knowledge, as a specific part of the action program defined. In fact, in this area, one of the most important applications of technology transfer to society and market in a coherent way is through the creation of Academic Spin Offs (ASO, Klofsten and Jones-Evans 2000; Rasmussen et al 2006; Shane and Stuart 2002; Vohora et al 2004; Czarnitzki, Rammer and Toole 2014). So, this particular type of firms, combines two different forms of knowledge: research (economically valuable) and entrepreneurship, with different characteristics such as risk propensity, work by objectives and economic evaluation of advantages. The presence of these different forms of "knowledge" characterizes the spinoff as particularly complex organizations. From the organizational point of view, according to the neo- Schumpeterian approach (Carlosson and Eliasson, 1994; Freeman, 1995; Van Oort and Lambooy 2014) there is the problem to create new learning processes that start from the competence and experience of a single people, represented in the academic spin-offs case through the expertise of an academic researcher. At the same time, the spinoff not answer exactly entrepreneurial logic, but are often characterized as the need by Universities and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), to "sell" and transfer to entrepreneurial community own knowledge, gained by projects search. Therefore, the spinoff of research, present itself like an instrument of knowledge transfer, strongly influenced by the local context, but at the same time is able to influence this context. So, the objective of this paper is to analyze the first case of a new research product made by University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro in this academic year (2014-2015): the Master Spin Off; a particular academic course in which education and training during the whole period are finalized to create a specific firm, in a Spin Off way. This represent an innovative mode in order to evaluate academic knowledge in the territorial context. This research paper wants to study and follow this new products to better understand its limits and potentiality.