Knowledge Transfer, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth: Some Reflections and Implications for Policy in the Netherlands

This paper provides an overview of the relationship between entrepreneurship university spin-off activity and economic growth. It suggests the need for a diversified university structure, and that spin-offs are a misleading measure of the most important activity for technology transfer which remains the training and education of highly qualified scientists and technologists. It argues that a linear approach to the innovation process positioning basic science at one end of a chain and commercialization at the other is misleading. The reality is more complex and incorporates important areas of activity where consideration of use and the pursuit of basic science go hand in hand.