The importance of team diversity for academic spinoff performance

This study examines how team diversity affects the performance of academic spinoffs. Building on the upper-echelon theory, we argue that different forms of diversity, namely profile diversity, cognitive distance, CEO non-duality, and the presence of a non-academic CEO may positively affect the early performance of academic spinoffs. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of 307 Italian academic spinoffs founded between 2010 and 2014. Our results support the positive role of diversity in enhancing growth, but only for innovative academic spinoffs. The presence of a non-academic CEO is the only diversity measure that plays a direct positive role, regardless of company technological features.