Spreading academic entrepreneurship: Made in Mexico

Abstract

This work presents REPITA (Research-Ecosystem-People-Intellectual Property-Transfer-Alignment), a prescriptive and repeatable model for successful technology-based academic entrepreneurship, synthesized from research of academic entrepreneurship in developing economy conditions. In this work, we identify three deficiencies in Mexico’s entrepreneurship ecosystem: research skills, high technology, and technology transfer. We then present a solution that has been recognized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for fueling high-tech university spin-offs with science and technology doctoral research. Lessons from 48 spin-off projects are synthesized in the newly proposed REPITA model, which prescribes connecting a basic research platform to applications, catalyzing the entrepreneurship ecosystem with resources and incentives, combining highly specialized people in entrepreneurial teams, setting generous and flexible intellectual property policies for the knowledge economy, transferring technology per entry and exit strategies, and aligning technology and business incubation. Finally, we propose a tool that presents academic entrepreneurship theories in an actionable format for university administrators and entrepreneurs. These results are not a theoretical framework on their own, but rather a real-world organizational model based on theory for impelling technology-based, academic spin-offs with economic impact. Taken together, this contribution may be useful to practitioners and provocative for researchers.