From Founders’ Knowledge to Economic Value Capture in Academic and Employee Start-ups

References

• Adams P, Fontana R, Malerba F (2016) User-industry spinouts: Downstream industry knowledge as a source of new firm entry and survival. Organ. Sci. 27(1):18–35.Link, Google Scholar
• Agarwal R, Ohyama A (2013) Industry or academia, basic or applied? Career choices and earnings trajectories of scientists. Management Sci. 59(4):950–970.Link, Google Scholar
• Agarwal R, Shah SK (2014) Knowledge sources of entrepreneurship: Firm formation by academic, user, and employee innovators. Res. Policy 43(7):1109–1133.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Agarwal R, Campbell BA, Franco AM, Ganco M (2016) What do I take with me? The mediating effect of spin-out team size and tenure on the founder–firm performance relationship. Acad. Management J. 59(3):1060–1087.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Agarwal R, Echambadi R, Franco AM, Sarkar MB (2004) Knowledge transfer through inheritance: Spin-out generation, development, and survival. Acad. Management J. 47(4):501–522.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Agrawal A, McHale J, Oettl A (2017) How stars matter: Recruiting and peer effects in evolutionary biology. Res. Policy 46(4):853–867.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Alvarez SA, Barney JB (2007) Discovery and creation: Alternative theories of entrepreneurial action. Strategic Entrepreneurship J. 1(1–2):11–26.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Argyres N, Liebeskind JP (1998) Privatizing the intellectual commons: Universities and the commercialization of biotechnology. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 35(4):427–454.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Argyres N, Mostafa R (2016) Knowledge inheritance, vertical integration, and entrant survival in the early US auto industry. Acad. Management J. 59(4):1474–1492.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Arora A, Ceccagnoli M (2006) Patent protection, complementary assets, and firms’ incentives for technology licensing. Management Sci. 52(2):293–308.Link, Google Scholar
• Arora A, Belenzon S, Suh J (2022) Science and the market for technology. Management Sci. 68(10):7176–7201.Link, Google Scholar
• Arora A, Fosfuri A, Gambardella A (2001) Markets for Technology: The Economics of Innovation and Corporate Strategy (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).Crossref, Google Scholar
• Arthur WB (2007) The structure of invention. Res. Policy 36(2):274–287.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Bercovitz J, Feldman M (2008) Academic entrepreneurs: Organizational change at the individual level. Organ. Sci. 19(1):69–89.Link, Google Scholar
• Boyacıoglu B, Ozdemir MN, Karim S (2024) Acqui‐hires: Redeployment and retention of human capital post‐acquisition. Strategic Management J. 45(2):205–237.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Burton MD, Sørensen JB, Beckman CM (2002) Coming from good stock: Career histories and new venture formation. Lounsbury M, Ventresca MJ, eds. Social Structure and Organizations Revisited, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 19 (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, UK), 229–262.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Camuffo A, Cordova A, Gambardella A, Spina C (2020) A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: Evidence from a randomized control trial. Management Sci. 66(2):564–586.Link, Google Scholar
• Cattani G, Fontana R, Malerba F (2024) Entrants heterogeneity, pre-entry knowledge, and the target industry context: A taxonomy and a framework. Indust. Corporate Change 33(1):8–39.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Chatterji AK (2009) Spawned with a silver spoon? Entrepreneurial performance and innovation in the medical device industry. Strategic Management J. 30(2):185–206.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Chatterji AK, Fabrizio K (2012) How do product users influence corporate invention? Organ. Sci. 23(4):971–987.Link, Google Scholar
• Chatterji AK, Cunningham CM, Joseph JE (2019) The limits of relational governance: Sales force strategies in the US medical device industry. Strategic Management J. 40(1):55–78.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Chattopadhyay S, Honoré F, Won S (2025) Free range startups? Market scope, academic founders, and the role of general knowledge in AI. Strategic Management J. 46(4):1027–1079.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Clarysse B, Tartari V, Salter A (2011a) The impact of entrepreneurial capacity, experience and organizational support on academic entrepreneurship. Res. Policy 40(8):1084–1093.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Clarysse B, Wright M, Van de Velde E (2011b) Entrepreneurial origin, technological knowledge, and the growth of spin‐off companies. J. Management Stud. 48(6):1420–1442.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Cohen WM, Sauermann H, Stephan P (2020) Not in the job description: The commercial activities of academic scientists and engineers. Management Sci. 66(9):4108–4117.Link, Google Scholar
• Conti A, Roche MP (2021) Lowering the bar? External conditions, opportunity costs, and high-tech start-up outcomes. Organ. Sci. 32(4):965–986.Link, Google Scholar
• Conti R, Gambardella A, Novelli E (2019b) Specializing in generality: Firm strategies when intermediate markets work. Organ. Sci. 30(1):126–150.Link, Google Scholar
• Conti A, Thursby M, Rothaermel FT (2013) Show me the right stuff: Signals for high‐tech startups. J. Econom. Management Strategy 22(2):341–364.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Conti A, Dass N, Di Lorenzo F, Graham SJ (2019a) Venture capital investment strategies under financing constraints. Res. Policy 48(3):799–812.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Dasgupta P, David PA (1994) Toward a new economics of science. Res. Policy 23(5):487–521.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Dencker JC, Gruber M, Shah SK (2009) Pre-entry knowledge, learning, and the survival of new firms. Organ. Sci. 20(3):516–537.Link, Google Scholar
• Dushnitsky G, Lenox MJ (2005) When do firms undertake R&D by investing in new ventures? Strategic Management J. 26(10):947–965.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Elfenbein DW, Hamilton BH, Zenger TR (2010) The small firm effect and the entrepreneurial spawning of scientists and engineers. Management Sci. 56(4):659–681.Link, Google Scholar
• Engler D, Cattani G, Porac J (2020) Studying the incubation of a new product market through realized and alternative histories. Strategy Sci. 5(3):160–192.Link, Google Scholar
• Ensley MD, Hmieleski KM (2005) A comparative study of new venture top management team composition, dynamics and performance between university-based and independent start-ups. Res. Policy 34(7):1091–1105.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Feldman M, Ozcan S, Reichstein T (2019) Falling not far from the tree: Entrepreneurs and organizational heritage. Organ. Sci. 30(2):337–360.Link, Google Scholar
• Feldman M, Feller I, Bercovitz J, Burton R (2002) Equity and the technology transfer strategies of American research universities. Management Sci. 48(1):105–121.Link, Google Scholar
• Felin T, Zenger TR (2009) Entrepreneurs as theorists: On the origins of collective beliefs and novel strategies. Strategic Entrepreneurship J. 3(2):127–146.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Foss NJ, Klein PG (2012) Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Approach to the Firm (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK).Crossref, Google Scholar
• Fosfuri A (2006) The licensing dilemma: Understanding the determinants of the rate of technology licensing. Strategic Management J. 27(12):1141–1158.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gambardella A, Giarratana MS (2013) General technological capabilities, product market fragmentation, and markets for technology. Res. Policy 42(2):315–325.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gambardella A, Ganco M, Honoré F (2015) Using what you know: Patented knowledge in incumbent firms and employee entrepreneurship. Organ. Sci. 26(2):456–474.Link, Google Scholar
• Ganco M (2013) Cutting the Gordian knot: The effect of knowledge complexity on employee mobility and entrepreneurship. Strategic Management J. 34(6):666–686.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gans JS, Stern S (2003) The product market and the market for “ideas”: Commercialization strategies for technology entrepreneurs. Res. Policy 32(2):333–350.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gao C, McDonald R (2022) Shaping nascent industries: Innovation strategy and regulatory uncertainty in personal genomics. Admin. Sci. Quart. 67(4):915–967.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gaonkar S, Moeen M (2023) Standing on the parent’s shoulder or in its shadow? Alliance partner overlap between employee spinouts and their parents. Strategic Management J. 44(2):415–440.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gompers P, Lerner J, Scharfstein D (2005) Entrepreneurial spawning: Public corporations and the genesis of new ventures, 1986 to 1999. J. Finance 60(2):577–614.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Hallen BL (2008) The causes and consequences of the initial network positions of new organizations: From whom do entrepreneurs receive investments? Admin. Sci. Quart. 53(4):685–718.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Helfat CE (1997) Know‐how and asset complementarity and dynamic capability accumulation: The case of R&D. Strategic Management J. 18(5):339–360.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Helfat CE, Lieberman MB (2002) The birth of capabilities: Market entry and the importance of pre‐history. Indust. Corporate Change 11(4):725–760.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Helfat CE, Raubitschek RS (2000) Product sequencing: Co‐evolution of knowledge, capabilities and products. Strategic Management J. 21(10–11):961–979.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Hsu DH (2007) Experienced entrepreneurial founders, organizational capital, and venture capital funding. Res. Policy 36(5):722–741.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Jain S, George G, Maltarich M (2009) Academics or entrepreneurs? Investigating role identity modification of university scientists involved in commercialization activity. Res. Policy 38(6):922–935.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Jensen R, Thursby M (2001) Proofs and prototypes for sale: The licensing of university inventions. Amer. Econom. Rev. 91(1):240–259.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Kachra A, White RE (2008) Know‐how transfer: The role of social, economic/competitive, and firm boundary factors. Strategic Management J. 29(4):425–445.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Kacperczyk A, Marx M (2016) Revisiting the small-firm effect on entrepreneurship: Evidence from firm dissolutions. Organ. Sci. 27(4):893–910.Link, Google Scholar
• Katila R, Ahuja G (2002) Something old, something new: A longitudinal study of search behavior and new product introduction. Acad. Management J. 45(6):1183–1194.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Katila R, Thatchenkery S, Christensen MQ, Zenios S (2017) Is there a doctor in the house? Expert product users, organizational roles, and innovation. Acad. Management J. 60(6):2415–2437.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Kaul A, Ganco M, Raffiee J (2024) When subjective judgments lead to spinouts: Employee entrepreneurship under uncertainty, firm-specificity, and appropriability. Acad. Management Rev. 49(2):215–248.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Kim S, Agarwal R, Goldfarb B (2026) Creating radical technologies and competencies: Revisiting interorganizational dynamics in the nascent bionic prosthetic industry. Organ. Sci. 37(1):272–301.Link, Google Scholar
• King B, Ganco M, Starr E (2024) Reconciling theories on why employees of small firms are more likely to become entrepreneurs. Indust. Corporate Change 33(1):194–215.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Klepper S, Sleeper S (2005) Entry by spinoffs. Management Sci. 51(8):1291–1306.Link, Google Scholar
• Klepper S, Thompson P (2010) Disagreements and intra-industry spinoffs. Internat. J. Indust. Organ. 28(5):526–538.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lazar M, Miron-Spektor E, Agarwal R, Erez M, Goldfarb B, Chen G (2020) Entrepreneurial team formation. Acad. Management Ann. 14(1):29–59.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lockett A, Wright M (2005) Resources, capabilities, risk capital and the creation of university spin-out companies. Res. Policy 34(7):1043–1057.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lowe RA, Ziedonis AA (2006) Overoptimism and the performance of entrepreneurial firms. Management Sci. 52(2):173–186.Link, Google Scholar
• Marco AC, Myers A, Graham SJ, D’Agostino P, Apple K (2015) The USPTO patent assignment dataset: Descriptions and analysis.Google Scholar
• Marx M, Gans JS, Hsu DH (2014) Dynamic commercialization strategies for disruptive technologies: Evidence from the speech recognition industry. Management Sci. 60(12):3103–3123.Link, Google Scholar
• Mindruta D (2013) Value creation in university‐firm research collaborations: A matching approach. Strategic Management J. 34(6):644–665.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Mindruta D, Bercovitz J, Mares V, Feldman M (2025) Stars in their constellations: Great person or great team? Management Sci. 71(3):2170–2191.Link, Google Scholar
• Mitchell W (1991) Dual clocks: Entry order influences on incumbent and newcomer market share and survival when specialized assets retain their value. Strategic Management J. 12(2):85–100.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Moeen M (2017) Entry into nascent industries: Disentangling a firm’s capability portfolio at the time of investment versus market entry. Strategic Management J. 38(10):1986–2004.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Moeen M, Agarwal R (2017) Incubation of an industry: Heterogeneous knowledge bases and modes of value capture. Strategic Management J. 38(3):566–587.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Moeen M, Mitchell W (2020) How do pre‐entrants to the industry incubation stage choose between alliances and acquisitions for technical capabilities and specialized complementary assets? Strategic Management J. 41(8):1450–1489.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Moreira S, Klueter TM, Asija A (2023) Market for technology 2.0? Reassessing the role of complementary assets on licensing decisions. Res. Policy 52(7):104787.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Nerkar A, Shane S (2003) When do start-ups that exploit patented academic knowledge survive? Internat. J. Indust. Organ. 21(9):1391–1410.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Ott TE, Eisenhardt KM (2020) Decision weaving: Forming novel, complex strategy in entrepreneurial settings. Strategic Management J. 41(12):2275–2314.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Pahnke EC, Katila R, Eisenhardt KM (2015) Who takes you to the dance? How partners’ institutional logics influence innovation in young firms. Admin. Sci. Quart. 60(4):596–633.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Phillips DJ (2002) A genealogical approach to organizational life chances: The parent-progeny transfer among Silicon Valley law firms, 1946–1996. Admin. Sci. Quart. 47(3):474–506.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Pontikes E (2022) Category innovation in the software industry: 1990-2002. Strategic Management J. 43(9):1697–1727.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Qian L, Agarwal R, Hoetker G (2012) Configuration of value chain activities: The effect of pre-entry capabilities, transaction hazards, and industry evolution on decisions to internalize. Organ. Sci. 23(5):1330–1349.Link, Google Scholar
• Roche MP, Conti A, Rothaermel FT (2020) Different founders, different venture outcomes: A comparative analysis of academic and non-academic startups. Res. Policy 49(10):104062.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Rothaermel FT (2001) Incumbent’s advantage through exploiting complementary assets via interfirm cooperation. Strategic Management J. 22(6–7):687–699.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Sakakibara M, Balasubramanian N (2020) Human capital, parent size, and the destination industry of spinouts. Strategic Management J. 41(5):815–840.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Sauermann H, Roach M (2016) Why pursue the postdoc path. Science 352(6286):663–664.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Sauermann H, Stephan P (2013) Conflicting logics? A multidimensional view of industrial and academic science. Organ. Sci. 24(3):889–909.Link, Google Scholar
• Serrano CJ (2010) The dynamics of the transfer and renewal of patents. RAND J. Econom. 41(4):686–708.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Shane S (2000) Prior knowledge and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. Organ. Sci. 11(4):448–469.Link, Google Scholar
• Shane S (2004) Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spinoffs and Wealth Creation (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK).Crossref, Google Scholar
• Stephan PE (1996) The economics of science. J. Econom. Literature 34(3):1199–1235.Google Scholar
• Stern S (2004) Do scientists pay to be scientists? Management Sci. 50(6):835–853.Link, Google Scholar
• Stuart TE, Ding WW (2006) When do scientists become entrepreneurs? The social structural antecedents of commercial activity in the academic life sciences. Amer. J. Sociol. 112(1):97–144.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Teece DJ (1986) Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy. Res. Policy 15(6):285–305.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Tzabbar D, Cirillo B, Breschi S (2022) The differential impact of intrafirm collaboration and technological network centrality on employees’ likelihood of leaving the firm. Organ. Sci. 33(6):2250–2273.Link, Google Scholar
• Wennberg K, Wiklund J, Wright M (2011) The effectiveness of university knowledge spillovers: Performance differences between university spinoffs and corporate spinoffs. Res. Policy 40(8):1128–1143.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Xiao T, Makhija M, Karim S (2022) A knowledge recombination perspective of innovation: Review and new research directions. J. Management 48(6):1724–1777.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Zucker LG, Darby MR (1996) Star scientists and institutional transformation: Patterns of invention and innovation in the formation of the biotechnology industry. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93(23):12709–12716.Crossref, Google Scholar