Characteristics of the University´s spin off: University of Alicante

Abstract

Nowadays knowledge is not enough to benefit today's societies, it is necessary to transfer it and incorporate it into products and services that contribute to solving existing problems. For that reason, various ways of knowledge transfer have been created, such as contracts to generate innovations, collaborative research and development projects, licenses to use or transfer rights of knowledge obtained, mobility of researchers and the creation of university´s spin-offs. That organizations, also known as university technology-based companies, stand out because they promote the commercialization of innovations generated in Higher Education Institutions, allowing tangible benefits to be obtained for society. In this sense, this document aims to identify the characteristics that allow spin-offs to be successful in the province of Alicante in Spain, through a qualitative methodology, whose main tool for obtaining information was the semi-structured interview, complemented with documentary review, an inductive analysis process and the triangulation of information. Recognizing the problems that today are an international priority, the need arises to join efforts with academia to address current social problems with technological developments. The results allowed to identify all the elements that allow the spin-off created by the University of Alicante to be successful, concluding that this type of organization has the potential not only to share the knowledge generated in the universities, but also to contribute to the economic development of the region and the country where they are created.