In this paper we illustrate the changes that the Italian university system underwent from the early 2000s till today, with a special focus on the transition to academic entrepreneurship. We describe these changes as part of more general and similar trends taking place in other European countries...

In this paper, using a neo-institutional perspective, we model inter-temporal organisational responses applied to the diffusion and evolution of regulations and practices in university patenting activities. Our study is located in Italy, and it is based on the complete list of patent regulations...

In this contribution I analyze the individual characteristics of a sample of entrepreneurs, founders of 104 new technology-based firms established after 2002, in the Emilia Romagna region in Italy. Relying on 166 face-to-face interviews, I provide some evidence on the motivations underlying...

In this report, we use a population-based approach to explore the entrepreneurial activities of 61,115 students, alumni of the 64 Italian universities that are members of the AlmaLaurea consortium, in the second half of 2014. Data were collected through a newly developed section of the...

Over the last 20 years, the processes of knowledge transfer and commercialization of academic research through the creation of new research-based ventures (i.e., academic spin-offs) has gained momentum in Italy. The relevance of this phenomenon to policymakers and managers motivates the research...

The role played by companies started by University students has gained considerable attention in recent years. The visibility of several iconic companies such as Dell, Yahoo!, Google and Dropbox and the personal stories of their founders have attracted great attention and universities have...

We explore the relationship between university graduates’ early career decisions and their interregional mobility. We focus on the immediate entry of graduates in the labor market, analyzing the antecedents and relations of their career decisions (self-employment vs. salaried job) and mobility...