Diversity Management in Academic Business Venturing: Empirical Evidences from Italian Universities

Academic management could be seen as a significant factor in exploiting university intellectual property through a business venture. Although several studies recognized entrepreneurial abilities and skills as key drivers of start-up economic success in high-technology sectors, only a few of them focused on academic start-ups performance considering the top management composition. Accordingly, the aim of this work was to investigate the impact of diversity management on academic start-ups financial performance, focusing on academic members in board of directors from a resource-based perspective. In particular, we carried out a cross-sectional analysis bordering our study to 136 university spin-offs established in southern Italy. Our findings showed that diversity management in academic business venturing increases the economic performance of university spin-offs. Specifically, a well-diversified academic top management according to functional diversity as well as academic position impacts positively on academic start-ups economic growth while scientific background heterogeneity seems to lower the economic performance.