Entrepreneurial Experience and Entrepreneurial Strategy: Empirical Analysis of the Influence of Entrepreneurial Teams with Academic and Surrogate Entrepreneurs on Entrepreneurial Strategy of Research-based Spin-off Companies in Europe

This study analyses the influence of entrepreneurial experience in research-based spin-off companies (RBSOs) on entrepreneurial strategy, venture development, and firm performance and uses different sources of information. Besides desktop-research a quantitative empirical analysis addressing RBSOs in Europe will be conducted. The first step was a survey asking technology transfer officers at universities and non-university research institutes about RBSOs at their organisations. In cooperation with the University of Antwerp 1.011 institutes in 24 European countries have been contacted leading to a database with 8,505 companies. In the next step an appropriate sample of RBSOs will be selected and asked for the characteristics of the entrepreneurial team and the strategy of the company. Finally, it will include different sources to measure RBSOs´ performance. This research-in-progress paper gives an overview about the current status quo of the study. It includes a brief review of the existing literature, introduces the research questions, and discusses a subset of hypotheses as well as the theoretical background and proposed methodology.