Intangible assets and project management in academic spin offs.

The paper analyses the characteristics of university and academic spin offs, the features of their intangible resources and the project management processes. In particular, it observes the structure and the impact of project management models on the business performances as well as the skills, the leadership profile, the relationships and the knowledge useful to managers. The sample consists of 38 enterprises which have been selected taking into account the most prolific universities in Italy. The research questions are expressed in the following way: what role does the university spin off play within the network of relations with external stakeholders? What intangible resources are essential to success? How does the project management contribute to the efficiency of the business action? The data useful to the empirical analysis are obtained from questionnaires and document sources drawn from national database, corporate, ministerial and university sites. Social network and correlation analyses have been carried out on the sample; empirical evidences lead to observations which are useful to understand excellences/critical situations of academic spin offs, with useful implications for the research management.