Do you know what is the characteristic shared by companies such as Yahoo, Google, Silicon Graphics, Kelkoo, Ilog, Lycos, Digital Equipement, Genetech, Chiron, Biogen, and Soitec ?
All these companies grew up out of universities or R&D centres (Yahoo, Google and Silicon Graphics started at Stanford, Kelkoo and Ilog at the Inria (the French IT research center), Lycos at Carnegie Mellon, Digital Equipment at the MIT, Genetech and Chiron at the San Francisco University of California, Biogen at Harvard, and Soitec at the Grenoble CEA (the French Atomic Energy organisation).
In a special issue of Expansion Management Review, a leading managerial review, titled "The unknown entrepreneur" (December 2004), Philippe Mustar, professor at the Ecole Nationale supérieure des Mines in Paris presents his findings regarding the research-generated start-ups. Available studies converge and show an ever increasing number of spin-offs from academia. A crucial stake for developed economies, and Philippe Mustar helps us to understand how it works.