How to evaluate the impact of academic spin-offs on local development: an empirical analysis of the Italian case

The paper proposes a framework to evaluate the impact of academic spin-offs at the local level. Spin-off creation is the most complex way of commercializing academic research, compared to patenting and R&D collaborations, but has the highest potential impact on the local context. We develop a framework that takes into account the direct and indirect impacts of spin-offs. In the empirical part of the paper we apply this framework to Italian spin-offs set up between 2000 and 2012, and to a sample of Università Politecnica delle Marche spin-offs. The empirical analysis shows that, measured in quantitative terms, the impact of spin-offs on the local economy is quite small. However, this depends on the characteristics of the local economy, and there are some indirect effects that should be considered in both the short and longer terms.