The effects of public policies in fostering university spinoffs in Italy

Performance-based research funding systems in the European Union include a number of established spinoffs among the measures of universities’ third mission. Through a longitudinal study on the establishment of 1254 spinoffs during 1999–2015 from 85 Italian state universities, we find that the introduction of such a policy increased the number of academic spinoffs. However, the rate of creation of academic spinoffs increased in regions with higher skilled unemployment and in universities with fewer academic career opportunities, rather than in more research-oriented or more prestigious universities. These results cast doubt on the appropriateness of measures based on the sheer number of academic spinoffs in evaluating the third mission of universities.