Social networks' openness, university entrepreneurship and differences between regional innovation systems

Abstract

Enhancing the establishment and growth of spin-off firms from university is receiving an increased attention in local and regional policy today. University spin-off firms are typically in short of resources, reason why social networks play a vital role in their early growth. There is however a lack of understanding of the profile of these networks in different segments of these firms. Building on a resource-based perspective and the concept of open innovation, we explore differences between two types of spin-off firms: highly innovative ones and medium-to-low-innovative ones. The results indicate a smaller growth among highly innovative spin-offs as an impact of among others more homogeneous and more often locally oriented networks. This situation calls for opening of the social networks and gradually growing business networks. The paper speculates on how open innovation and the specific model of living labs may be helpful in this strategy, but also how different urban areas (high versus low density) may influence such strategy.