Academic Inventiveness and Entrepreneurship: on the Importance of Start-up Companies in Commercializing Academic Patents

This article presents research that places the academic start-up phenomenon in the broader technology transfer context. Drawing on data on Finnish academic inventions, the paper illustrates that a considerable share of university-related patents are utilized in start up companies but that still most academic patents are utilized in established and predominantly large firms. Differences in utilization patterns are explored for different fields of science and technology