Abstract:

Academic entrepreneurship has become an increasingly important topic in recent years, as universities seek to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among their students and faculty. One key aspect of this trend has been the establishment of university business incubators, which are designed to support the growth and development of startups founded by university students, faculty, and alumni. While there has been a growing body of research on the impact of university business incubators on their associated startups, much of this research has focused on startups that meet the criteria of a spinoff startup – a startup that is based on a previous research project or patent. However, this paper argues that there is a new category of university startups that has emerged in recent years, which mostly focuses on app or platform businesses with a solid business model, rather than on major technological innovations. This new category of startups has not received as much attention from researchers, despite its growing importance in the university entrepreneurship ecosystem. Therefore, the paper analyses the current state of the art regarding academic entrepre-neurship and highlights the need to broaden the scope of research beyond spinoff startups.