Strategic entrepreneurship, resource orchestration and growing spin-offs from universities

By combining the strategic entrepreneurship perspective and resource orchestration theory we provide an integrated framework that explains the heterogeneity of growth across different types of university spin-offs (USOs). We show that appropriate resource accumulation, the bundling of resources to build competencies and the leveraging of those competencies into the market are all necessary but they also need to be synchronised with an appropriate growth strategy to realise sustainable growth. We discuss the differential resource needs at different stages of growth as USOs attempt to overcome critical junctures of entrepreneurial commitment and venture credibility. We explain the difficulties of accumulating an appropriate breadth of resources and competencies as they are contingent upon whether the USO should be aiming to sell their technology outright or whether they should be developing a product for a specific market opportunity. We conclude by proposing that universities and technology transfer offices should synchronise the depth of their organisational support to meet the growth contingencies of the USO.