Science Commercialization and Start-up Performance
The DEMS Management Seminar series is proud to host
Prof. Aliasghar Bahoo-Torodi
(Bayes business school)
Science Commercialization and Start-up Performance
Abstract:
Academic founders often maintain their university position while working on their start-up. However, we know little about how this continued university employment affects start-up performance. Analyzing a sample of academic start-ups in the biotech industry, we find an overall negative effect of maintaining a university position on start-up performance. Our results suggest that two mechanisms underlie this relationship: a lack of complementarity between academic and start-up activities, and the negative signal that maintaining a university position conveys to external audiences. Consistent with the complementarity mechanism, we find that the negative effect of continued university employment is attenuated when the invention being commercialized is based on applied rather than basic science and when the founding team includes a co-founder with relevant industry experience. Consistent with the audience evaluation mechanism, we find that the negative effect is attenuated when the academic founder is a prolific inventor and hence enjoys a higher reputation than other founders.
BIO
Aliasghar Bahoo-Torodi is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Bayes business school. His research program centers on understanding the diverse career trajectories that individuals take prior to transitioning into entrepreneurship. His research has been published in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, and Research Policy. Ali holds a PhD in management from university of Bologna and an MSc in economics and management from USI (Lugano).
The seminar will be held in U7-04.