Fostering the creation of academic spinoffs: does the international mobility of the academic leader matter?

The impact of the academic leaders on the university’s entrepreneurial orientation has received only anecdotal attention, though they are recognized to be important for the flow and transfer of knowledge as they have a pivotal role in setting the strategic goals of their institutions. Our study addresses this gap by investigating the role of university leaders in fostering the creation of academic spinoffs. Particularly we focus on the impact of university leader’s international mobility. Through a longitudinal study of 1176 spinoffs from 59 Italian state universities over the period 2001 and 2015, we find that the mobility of university leaders positively affects the rate of establishment of academic spinoffs. Rectors that experienced international mobility in their career develop networks and collaborations that facilitate the business involvement of their institutions. These positive externalities are larger in internationalized universities as well as in international-oriented regions. The research contributions on human capital theory, social network literature, international academic mobility, and knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship are discussed.