The Emerging Contextual Effect of University Spin-offs and its Role in Spurring Innovation in Regional Area

The technology and knowledge transfer from university to industry has raised the attention of policy makers and practitioners as fundamental process in promoting the development of regional innovation and entrepreneurship. University Spin-Offs (USOs), firms established to commercialize the knowledge and technology out- comes of academic research, may constitutes an effective mechanism to improve the innovative dynamics in the regional area. The paper explores the assumption that USOs may partially determine the innovation of regions they are located. From a panel sample of 944 USOs placed in 20 Italian administrative regions, the findings remark that USOs (analysed as [1] number of USOs from each University and [2] patents activity of USOs) has a positive impact on the regional innovation in term of regional patent applications, while a weak role of USOs seems to emerge in term of regional expenditure in R&D.