Barriers to the Generation of University Spin-offs: A Case Study of Vienna

The generation of spin-off businesses from university scientific research projects is a potentially important way that universities can contribute to building regional knowledge-based economies. But while there is strong potential, the incidence of university spin-offs in most regions of Europe is disappointingly small, even in cases of the presence of highly ranked research universities. The literature on entrepreneurship generally indicates that the process of generating a successful, technology-based startup is complex and difficult, with different obstacles typically occurring at different phases of the start-up process. In order to understand better the reasons why the incidence of university spin-offs has been disappointingly low in the EU, we have conducted an empirical study of the perceived barriers for the region of Vienna, Austria. The results of the study for Vienna indicate that the most important barriers lie in the attitudes and experiences of individual faculty entrepreneurs, on the one hand, and the difficulty of securing funding and attracting investors from various sources, on the other. The results also show there is general agreement in the perception of faculty entrepreneurs, university administrators, and experts about the entrepreneurial scene, about which barriers are most and least important. The empirical results suggest how the innovation ecosystem of Vienna can be strengthened to increase the incidence of university spin-offs. These suggestions include greater coordination and synergy among universities, private funding sources, and government policymakers. We also indicate fruitful directions for additional research.