Conceptualización de la spin-off universitaria

Abstract

In the last times a growing emphasis exists in the commercialization of the university investigation, in particular, through the creation of companies (spin-offs). However, a series of aspects is still little understood. In particular, the concept of university spin-off seems to present a certain ambiguity. Also, the fact that unanimity doesn't exist in the terminology used to designate to this phenomenon the confusion increases and hinders its analysis. For this reason, it seems convenient to specify the true reach of the concept of university spin-off. The present work analyzes this question by means of a revision of the existent literature. The work is divided in four sections. The first section highlights the growing importance of the creation and development of technologybased firms. The second section is about clarifying the understanding of the spin-off concept, defining the limits of its field of validity. The third section specifies the true reach of the university spin-off concept. The fourth and last section shows the main conclusions of this study.