Academic entrepreneurs' role in science‐based companies

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present the results of a study examining the role played by academic entrepreneurs in science‐based companies grown in university incubators. The authors aim to address whether the presence of academic entrepreneurs improves economic and financial performances. Moreover, the authors aim to verify whether different levels of involvement of academic entrepreneurs (i.e. shareholder, member of board of director) can contribute to different levels of financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – The research was carried out on a sample of science‐based companies originating predominantly from Northern Italy, which had graduated from the Turin Polytechnic Incubator, called I3P. Data about the presence of academic entrepreneurs were obtained by interviewing the Incubator's CEO, while companies' financial performance was assessed by financial ratios analysis. A multiple linear regression model was developed to test the relationship between presence of academic entrepren...