Impact of non-commercial networks on academic entrepreneurship in post-commercialisation

Academic spin-offs (ASOs) are three-way synergies among academic institutions, industries, and the government based on the Triple Helix model. Extant literature highlights the importance of industrial networks for spin-offs' success, yet few studies explore their networking strategies with non-commercial parties after knowledge commercialisation. Using data from 216 listed ASOs in China wherein government-push and market-pull venturing patterns simultaneously exist, this paper empirically investigates the impact that the academic and political connections of entrepreneurs have upon firms' sustainable performance. Using fixed effects estimation, the results demonstrate that academic networks still have a positive influence on the financial performance of commercialised ASOs. The effects of political networks, however, differ across ownerships. Politically connected entrepreneurs are found to strengthen firms' performance in state-owned ASOs, but they impede performance in non-state-owned ASOs wherein academic networks are shown to weaken this negative effect.