Academic spin-off activities and research performance: the mediating role of research collaboration

Studies on the effect of entrepreneurial activities on scientists’ subsequent research performance have reported mixed findings. Given the misalignment between spin-off involvement and research activity, our study aims to add to the literature on academic entrepreneurship by examining this effect in a new context and testing the mediating role of research collaboration. We hypothesize that spin-off involvement fosters research collaboration between entrepreneurs and external researchers, which in turn is conducive to research performance. The empirical exercise is based on a sample of 945 scientists at 11 leading material sciences faculties in China, focusing on their spin-off involvement from 2012 to 2014 and their publication records in the following 5-year period. We find that spin-off involvement has a positive effect on individual scientists’ subsequent research excellence but does not significantly increase their research productivity. Our findings also confirm the mediating role of research collaboration (both academic–corporate and domestic cross-institutional) in the association between spin-off involvement and research performance.