Institutional change and resource endowments to science-based entrepreneurial firms

This paper considers the question of whether the resource endowments of science-based entrepreneurial firms are influenced by the way technology transfer is organised at the parent organisation. We studied one public research organisation in detail (IMEC, Belgium), by questioning all managers involved in technology transfer and the founders of all science-based entrepreneurial firms set up between 1986 and 2002. This research identifies three generations of companies at IMEC, mirroring the organisational changes in technology transfer policies and displaying distinct resource characteristics. Establishing an incubator structure for spin-offs seems to be a learning process during which little decision making can be exerted over senior management's social network in the financial and business community for securing the financial, technological and human resources for the science-based entrepreneurial firms.