SPIN-UP Entrepreneurship Training and Coaching for University Spin-Offs SPIN-UP is a project financed by the Erasmus Programme under the Lifelong Learning Programme from the European Commission. SPIN-UP aims to contribute to the development of Key Entrepreneurial Skills in University Spin-Offs by creating a specific Training and Coaching Program and by providing guidelines to help Higher Education Institutions integrate entrepreneurial learning into their curricula.

1. GROWTH CHALLENGE FOR
UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFFS & THE
PROJECT SPIN-UP

2. What are University SPIN-Offs
(USO)?
USO firms are defined as newly
established firms that bring
university knowledge to market
(Pirnay et al., 2003).

3. Why are USO important?
USO have a critical importance
for a competitive knowledge
based economy (Rothwell and
Zegveld, 1985; Mansfield, 1998;
Martinelli et al., 2008), as they
are responsible for the creation
of:
• innovative services and
products of high added
value and high transferable
profile in the international
market
• new knowledge based jobs

4. The growth challenge for USO
• Most USO are not larger than 10 employees after six years of
survival. (P. Mustar, 2007)
• USO in Delft (Netherlands) have faced an average annual
growth of 0.84 full time equivalent (fte), roughly in the years
1998 to 2006. Idem Spin-Offs in Trondheim (Norway): 0.89 full
time equivalent (fte). (D.P. Soetanto, 2009)
• USO in Delft (NL) have faced an average annual growth of 1.0
full time equivalent (fte), in the years from founding of the firm
up to 2010. (Fadilah, Van Geenhuizen and Taheri, 2012)

5. • Legal framework (IPR and
Researchers employment
status)
• Finance Gap
• Knowledge Gap
Main barriers hampering
USO’s growth

6. •USO initial lower performance is highly influenced by their
founders who have more extensive formal education and less
extensive managerial skills than the founders of other
independent start-ups (Vendrell and Ortin, 2007)
•The knowledge gap of USO is a basic reason for the lack of
growth. This gap concerns the lack of entrepreneurial
knowledge and skills by the entrepreneur (Franklin et al, 2001)
•Academic entrepreneurs lack of managerial or generalistic
skills may directly influence their behaviour (Landry et al., 2006)
and thus the performance of USO (Roberts, 1991; Vohora et al,
2004; Shane, 2004)
The Knowledge Gap
and the growth of USO

7. Entrepreneurship Training
and Coaching
Programme for USO

8. SPIN-UP aims to create
an Entrepreneurship
Training and Coaching
Programme that
contributes to the
development of Key
Entrepreneurial
Skills, both technical
and
behavioural, essential to
enable and leverage
University Spin-Offs’
(USO) growth.

9. INESC Tec
Advancis – Business Services
Lappeenranta University of
Technology - Industrial Management
Partners
Technical University of Delft The
Faculty of Technology Policy and
Management
Leaders2Be
Support:
Center for Technology Transfer – University
of Lodz (Poland) e University of Porto
(Portugal)

10. Main phases of
SPIN-UP project
Solution (final) We are
here!
Pilot
Solution (beta)
Research
(desk research, case studies, questionnaires)

11. Research in
numbers
• 4 Countries involved: Finland,
Netherlands, Poland and
Portugal
• 54 in-depth interviews
conducted
• 99 questionnaires collected
• 4 case studies
Sample
• Average age: 6 anos
• Sectors: in ICT (26%), software technology
(16%) and life sciences (14%)
• Average nº workers: 11 FTE
• Turnover: 52% with less than 100 thousand
euros

12. Research
Missing skills and
performance of spin-off highlights
firms are related:
experiencing the often
occurring missing skills
gives a larger chance for
small growth compared
There are country differences in
to other firms; the same
missing entrepreneurial skills.
holds true for turnover size
and profitability. For example, the Netherlands
and Finland tend to be in short
of sales skills and Portugal of
internationalization skills, while
all countries - except the
Netherlands – are facing
Top missing skills perceived
as hampering the growth of missing skills on gaining financial
the firm: capital in the first place.
Gaining financial capital
Internationalization
Sales
Financial management
Marketing management

13. Solution Proposer by
Project SPIN-UP
Immersion
Event
Strategy for
Final Event
Growth
PROBLEM SOLVING
REAL BUSINES
SITUATIONS
NETWORKING • 5 to 7 hours in class
HRM and LEARNING WITH PEERS Financial per module
Leadership Planning for
for Growth Growth • Once a week or
every two weeks
• Training and group
coaching
Innovation,
Internationa-
marketing
lization for
and sales for
Note: undergoing
Growth
Growth pilot phase