Combination of manufacturing and services industries that capture, transmit and display data and information electronically (OECD, 2003). ICT sector refers to equipment and services related to broadcasting, computing and telecommunications, all of which capture and display information electronically (United Nations, 2004).
Published in Chapter:
Effect of Venture Capital on the Growth of Information and Communication Technology University Spin-Offs: Venture Capital Effect on the Growth of ICT-USOs
María Jesús Rodríguez-Gulías (Universidade da Coruña, Spain), Sara Fernández-López (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain), David Rodeiro-Pazos (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain), Ana Paula Faria (Universidade do Minho, Portugal), and Natalia Barbosa (Universidade do Minho, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2440-4.ch004
Abstract
The creation of university spin-off firms (USOs) to commercialize the academic research outputs contributes to the economic development of the regions. These firms are often resource-constrained, which may hamper their growth. However, the involvement of venture capital (VC) partners in their management can partly counterbalance their traditional lack of resources. Within the USOs created in Portugal and Spain, around one-third operate in the information and communication technology industry (ICT-USOs). This chapter aims to explore the effect of VC partners on the ICT-USOs' growth by using a sample of 127 Spanish and 176 Portuguese ICT-USOs over the period 2007–2013. The results show that the effect of VC on the ICT-USOs' growth depends not only on the country, but also on how firm growth is measured; whereas a weak positive effect on the sales growth is found, a negative one is obtained in the case of the employment growth.