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abstract. Legislation concerning intellectual-property rights is changing, prompting universities around the world to focus more and more on the commercial potential of their research. One result is academic spin-offs. Our study compares academic spin-offs in the United States and Scandinavia, specifically Norway and Sweden. We found that four key dimensions-university relations, government-support mechanisms, industry relations, and equity funding-emerged as central elements in all cases. These four dimensions thus serve as comparative backdrops. We find important differences between the three countries, most markedly between the United States and the two Scandinavian countries. The idiosyncrasies of each country are discussed. We include implications for academic researchers, universities, and government agencies.
Introductio n
Industry, researchers, and governments all agree that university technologies are increasingly central in the development of regional economies (Saxenian, 1994; Zucker, Darby, & Brewer, 1998). This makes it timely to explore the mechanisms by which research-based knowledge from universities and research institutions spills over into society (DiGregorio & Shane, 2003), and also how this is affecting the universities themselves. According to Shane (2004a), some critics claim that the commercialization of research undercuts universities' primary function, which historically is teaching; others question whether it is ethical for researchers to receive substantial government grants and then become rich from their findings. Chrisman, Hynes, and Fraser (1995) noted over a decade ago that the common perception of universities as merely institutions of higher learning is giving way to one where universities worldwide are viewed as engines of economic growth and development. Although there are also important barriers to the diffusion of technology from universities to industry (Sobol & Newell, 2003), the change in understanding of the university's function is gradually spreading. Along with "knowledge production," we are now learning to add "capitalization of knowledge"; and we are also throwing in the objective of improving regional and national economic performance, not to mention the university's own financial advantage and that of its faculty (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000).
The proper role of today's universities is a rich topic, well worth debating, but it lies outside the scope of this article. Here, our focus is on how capitalizing on university knowledge is implemented at three leading research institutions in Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The Norwegian University of...