Research and public policy on academic entrepreneurship are largely based on the assumption that faculty members start businesses to commercialize inventions that have been disclosed to university administrators and have been patented. In this paper, we analyze a sample of 11,572 professors and...

The creation of university spin-off companies (USOs) is one of the most visible form of commercialization of university research. To date, there is scant and mixed evidence about USOs and their performance, thus producing a debate about their impact on the economy and society and about the...

A considerable body of work highlights the relevance of collaborative research, contract research, consulting and informal relationships for university–industry knowledge transfer. We present a systematic review of research on academic scientists’ involvement in these activities to which we...

In this paper, we analyze the extent to which University-Level Support Mechanisms (ULSMs) and Local-Context Support Mechanisms (LCSMs) complement or substitute for each other in fostering the creation of academic spin-offs. Using a sample of 404 companies spun off from the 64 Italian Science,...

The contribution analyzes the individual traits of a sample basket of entrepreneurs - the founders of 104 new technology-based firms established after 2002 - in the Emilia Romagna region in Italy. Based on 166 face-to-face interviews, the paper provides some evidence on the reasons that led to...

Online contract labor globalizes traditionally local labor markets, with platforms that enable employers, most of whom are in high-income countries, to more easily outsource tasks to contractors, primarily located in low-income countries. This market is growing rapidly; we provide descriptive...

Are location-specific factors--such as the education and attitude of the local workforce, supplier networks, institutional infrastructure, and local "culture"--important for understanding persistent heterogeneities among firms? We address this question in the context of the automobile industry....

Many economic transactions are prohibited—even in the absence of health or safety concerns or negative externalities—because of ethical concerns that cause these exchanges to be perceived as “repugnant” if conducted through a market. Establishing a system of payments for human organs is...

This paper analyses the effect of climate change on temperature, rainfall, irrigation requirements and water availability in a Mediterranean area, integrating bio-physical and economic relationships. The probability distribution function (PDF) of climate variables shows that the near future will...