Edinburgh Napier University

  While Univenture ecosystems present an exciting vision for economic development, policy and practice should be grounded in reality. The truth is that a limited number of hyper successful university spin-outs hide real challenges and mediocre economic outcomes. There is, in fact, limited evidence to support university venturing as a critical driver of technology-based economic development. Beyond outlier successes at a handful of institutions — most notably Stanford and MIT/Harvard — the link between university innovation and economic development is tenuous.