ABSTRACT
Since the science park boom in the early 1980s, universities in the United Kingdom and worldwide have been exhorted simultaneously to exploit their intellectual property (IP) base, and to contribute to economic growth and job creation through the formation of new small firms. Universities also make many other contributions, both economic and social/cultural in nature, to their localities (Goddard et al., 1994), but commercialisation and spin-offs have a particular appeal to policy-makers in times of seemingly accelerating technological change, strikingly uneven regional economic performance and tight budgets for higher education. It is hardly surprising then that a number of recent policy documents have called for further efforts by universities to commercialise their knowledge (House of Commons, 1994; Scottish Enterprise/Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1996; Department of Trade and Industry, 1998; European Commission, 1996). This is currently being intensified through new programmes such as University Challenge and Science Enterprise Challenge, and a significant increase in the numbers of university spin-offs (USOs) is a target of the DTI’s competitiveness strategy (DTI, 1998).
