How can university technology holding companies bridge the Valley of Death? Evidence from Korea

Abstract

This paper addresses how a technology holding company (THC) affects university inventions crossing the Valley of Death (VoD). A THC, which is a new incubation model, is a specialised organisation for establishing spin-offs as subsidiaries and commercialising university inventions. This study verifies the effects of THCs on the incubation productivity of universities by conducting a propensity-score matching and two-stage data envelopment analysis. The results show that, in the university group with high entrepreneurial orientation, universities with a THC are less productive in the invention stage but more productive in the commercialisation stage than universities without a THC. This demonstrates that THCs decrease productivity in the invention stage by playing the role of a gatekeeper but, in the commercialisation stage, increase productivity by playing the role of a sponsor. In addition, this study finds that the effects of a THC are more significant in universities with high entrepreneurial orientation than in universities with low entrepreneurial orientation. This paper shows that a THC positively affects university spin-offs crossing the VoD by playing different roles in the invention and commercialisation stages.