Academic Startups in the Innovation Ecosystem: Success Factors and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Startups are an important factor in the innovation landscape. Previous research on startups has focused on various individual factors that examine the establishment, growth or existence of startups. However, this study adopts a comprehensive perspective by embracing a holistic view of the innovation ecosystem surrounding startups, with a particular emphasis on the domain of academic spin-offs. On the one hand an essential element of technology transfer comes into play when examining spin-offs, and on the other hand spin-offs have a particularly high innovation potential. To further develop a functioning innovation ecosystem based on the needs of these young spin-offs, an explorative-qualitative research approach is selected. Ten cases of spin-offs during the Corona pandemic are considered. The interviews focus on the founders' interactions with participants in the innovation ecosystem, both under regular and extraordinary conditions. It is shown that innovation ecosystems are a dynamic and inter-connected structure for the growth of academic spin-offs, but that there is still room for multi-disciplinary collaboration among the players, as well as the integration of academic spin-offs into the ecosystem.