Does the Presence of Academic People in Companies’ Boards Influence Economic Performances? Evidence From Companies Grown in University Incubators (UIs)

Universities’ role in relation to entrepreneurial development has been investigated by different points of view. In particular many researches analyze the links between university and business with the aim to explain the determinants of success of companies grown in university incubators (UIs). In our opinion, there is a lack of research about the governance of entrepreneurial science-based companies; in particular about the effects of the composition of the related boards of directors and the characteristics of the people involved. Hence, we investigate the role played by academic personnel in the governance of companies grown in university incubators. The arising effect could be positive (i.e. due to advanced technology availability and continuous knowledge flows) or negative (i.e. due to lack of management experience and lack of time because of maintenance of academic commitments, etc.). We attempt to fill this gap studying 49 start-up companies graduated from I3P, the incubator of the Polytechnic of Turin (Italy). From our findings, it seems that the presence of academic people has a negative influence over financial performance of analyzed companies.