POLICIES AND STRUCTURES FOR SPINNING OFF NEW COMPANIES FROM RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS

This paper develops five alternative structural 'models' for formal ef forts aimed at spinning off new companies from universities, governmen t laboratories, and other research and development organizations. In v arious ways the models combine the roles of the technology originator, the entrepreneur, the R&D organization itself, and the venture invest or. The paper also presents the policies and structures of technology commercialization operations from investigations at eight R&D organiza tions in the United States and the United Kingdom. The data indicate t hat a R&D organization operating in an environment where venture capit al and entrepreneurs are readily available (e.g., MIT and Stanford) ca n appropriately: (1) exercise a low degree of selectivity in choosing technologies for spin-off creation, and (2) provide a low level of sup port during the spin-off process. The spin-off process is more difficu lt in environments where venture capital and entrepreneurs are scarce (e.g., ARCH) and mechanisms for high-selectivity and a high level of s upport must be in place by the R&D organization to compensate for this scarcity.